"We stay and finish the job," Porter said. "If we bug out now, by the time help arrives, it may very well be too late."
"Too late for what?" Cray asked.
"Too late for Earth," Steber answered.
"You're insane!" Cray screamed, on the edge of hysteria. "What does Earth have to do with this?"
"You know, for such a brilliant man, you can be awfully dense at time," Porter said and then mockingly added, "sir."
Steber said, "What I mean is that this moon is obviously a staging area. Whatever the scientists here accidentally unleashed, it's growing stronger and given time, it will attack Earth. I'm sure of it."
"Pure speculation!" Cray said. "A few isolated incidents and suddenly you two idiots have an alien invasion theory on your minds. That's really pathetic."
"I don't have to listen to this," Steber said. "We've wasted enough time. Either you come with us and help stop this genie that your people let out of the bottle, or you can go back and hide in your ship like the gutless bastard that you are." With that, he turned and began walking down the corridor, away from Cray. Porter gave the scientist an icy glare and followed his Sergeant.
"Marines!" Cray spat and jogged after the two soldiers. He had a feeling he was going to regret this.

"How exactly are we going to know this 'source' when we find it?" Cray said sarcastically as the trio walked on.
"Simple," Steber said. "It's sure to have the biggest and strongest creatures protecting it." Cray stopped walking. "You two truly are crazy," he said. "I really mean that."
"You think it's just us?" Porter said with a laugh. "Nobody completely sane would ever join the marines."
"Ha! You bet!" Steber said. As the party turned another corner, suddenly they heard something. It was the sound of weeping. Steber stopped moving and listened, afraid that his ears were playing tricks on him. As they drew nearer, any doubt vanished. Sure enough, there was a sobbing noise coming from up ahead.

"Do you hear that?" he asked Porter. The weapons expert nodded.
"What do you think it could be?" Cray asked.
"I'm not sure," Steber said.
"It sounds like moaning," Porter said. "Kind of like the noise the zombies made."
"Get your weapons ready," Steber said.
"Can you hear, it's coming from that bathroom," Cray noticed. The three moved closer to the restroom's entrance, Steber with his machine rifle fully loaded, Porter gripping his rocket launcher and Cray standing in the rear, his pistol drawn.

"Ready? one, two, THREE!" Steber shouted spun around the corner. They burst into the bathroom, guns drawn and instantly all three recoiled in disgust. What they saw took their breath away. Sitting in the middle of the room was the Beast – the creature that had first attacked them and killed Crowley and Edwards. It was hunched over a squirming form that Steber noted with a sickening realization was a zombified UAC scientist. Rather than simply 'killing' the zombie outright, the Beast had actually been in the process of cruelly toying with it. Whenever the zombie tried to get on its feet, the Beast would push it back down with a heavy paw.

There was blood everywhere - much of it belonging to the zombie, but Steber suspected that a bit of it was also from Crowley and Edwards. His stomach churning, he shot at the Beast, never letting up on the trigger. The Beast growled and reared up on its hind legs. It was then that the humans realized that strangely, the Beast wasn't purely an animal! Its lower half was robotic! The thing was a living alien / cyborg crossbreed. Fighting back the urge to vomit, Porter took aim with his rocket launcher and fired. Showing amazing grace and maneuverability for a creature of its size, the Beast jumped out of the way of the mini-rocket, which exploded, shattering porcelain toilets and sinks, but not causing any damage to the Beast. Steber fired again but the Beast dodged his bullets as well and quickly dashed into a hole in the wall caused by Porter's rocket. It abandoned the zombie, which was now left twitching helplessly. Steber peered into the opening where the Beast had disappeared. He could see that the hole led down into the darkness of an unfinished basement.

"I'm not going in there," Steber said. "God knows what's waiting for us down in that pit."
"Finally, some commons sense," Cray muttered. "Now, if only we could go back to the dropship instead of staying here and needlessly sacrificing ourselves in a personal vendetta."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Steber growled. "Like I said before, you're welcome to leave anytime you want." With this, Cray finally shut up.

Once they were back in the hallway, the group sped up. Though they were leaving the Beast far behind, they weren't taking any chances on it catching up with them. Continuing on their way, the team passed by a door marked, 'Reactor'. Cray stopped in his tracks before venturing inside.

"Doc, we don't have time for this!" Steber groaned. "Porter, stay out here and guard the hallway." The weapons expert nodded and Steber followed Cray into the chamber.

Once inside the reactor room, Steber was amazed at the piece of equipment he was looking at. It was the size of a small apartment building but looked as complicated as a circuit board. With the return of the power, it flashed with countless lights and filled the room with an electric hum. Steber walked up and put his hand on the machine. He was surprised to feel that it was ice cold, despite the room's warm temperature. When he mentioned this to Cray, the scientist only shrugged and continued shifting through papers on one of the workstations. Steber figured that once again, the doctor knew more than he was letting on, but he didn't really care. He was just beginning to walk away from the machine when he suddenly felt a massive surge of coldness fill his entire body. He bent down to his knees and waited for the feeling to pass, aware that Cray was doing the same.

"What was...?" Steber tried to say before they were hit again. His entire body seemed to freeze as if his insides had literally turned to ice. Cray crawled into a fetal position and Steber squeezed his eyes shut as they waited for the wave of freezing pain to abate. In less than a minute, it went away and the two were able to stand again.

"What the hell is going on now?" Steber asked Cray.
"Damned if I know!" the doctor retorted. The door opened and Porter ran in to join them.
"Did you two feel that as well?" Porter asked, fear clearly showing in his eyes.
"Yeah, we felt it," Steber said. "Let's keep going."

Before they could leave the room, the reactor suddenly sprang to life and began emitting a low grinding noise. Several sections of it started to glow and high-pitched screams filled the room. Not human screams, but cries similar to that of a squashed insect, only multiplied thousands of times in volume. Steber winced and again readied his weapon. The door from which Porter had just entered slammed shut and the three humans could hear locks cycling within it. Just to be sure, Cray tried to the door, only to find that it would not open.

"I don't think we're going to be leaving this one without a fight," Steber said as the screams around them intensified. Unearthly wails of anger, sorrow, pain, and hate all seemed to fill the room at once. Cray checked his pistol and Porter hefted his machine rifle. The humans stood like three points of a triangle, each facing a different direction. "All right, you beasts," Steber taunted. "Let's see what you've got!"

As if to answer him, the first creature appeared right in the center of the team's defensive posture. The humans heard an electronic 'swish' and a growl. They spun around to see a monster standing right between them. Similar to the Imp in color and shape, this one stood a foot taller. Red emergency lights reflected off of it as the thing opened its mouth to reveal human-like teeth. But the most disturbing feature of the monster was its eyes. At least ten glowing red eyes burned with a savage hatred at the team from the creature's face. It screeched and swiped at Cray, who stumbled to the ground, his lab coat torn open by the creature's long nails. The wound wasn't too deep, though, and the doctor was able to scramble away and cower in the corner of the room. Porter responded the fastest and fired first, blowing an arm off the Eye. It howled again and reached for Steber, who finished the job by unloading his entire carbine into the thing's chest. It let out a choking sound and fell to the deck. Steber just had enough time to slap a fresh magazine into his gun when the second and third Eyes appeared, this time off to the left. Three more swishing sounds were heard to the right and Porter turned and opened fire on the new arrivals.

"How can this be happening?" Porter cried out over the blasting of the machineguns. "They're appearing out of thin air!" Steber, who was busy keeping five Eyes at bay, couldn't waste a moment to answer. They kept pouring into the room, homicidal beasts materializing from nothingness. Upon touching the floor, each creature would blink and then immediately start moving towards the marines, claws outstretched and teeth dripping slime. Finally, Steber was able to bark out an order.

"CRAY, DO SOMETHING!" he yelled. "GET THAT DOOR OPEN!"
"I can't!" the doctor blubbered and buried his head in his lab coat. Steber cursed and fired again and again at the creatures, now numbering in the twenties, which surrounded them. His gun clicked empty and he slammed yet another ammo clip into it. Turning around, he saw that an Eye had pounced on Porter's back, knocking the soldier to the ground. In front of himself, Steber saw another one coming up fast. In just a heartbeat's time, Steber had to decide whether to...