Roast - to heat in excess

8.3.5 SW
20:43/21 SW-CP-Local Time
Crowning Point > Reactor > Maintenance Tunnels

Gauss' nerves were primed just enough for him to dodge the facehugger that lunged at him from the egg that had squelched and bloomed just under his very nose.

It skittered across the hive behind him. Gauss swiveled around, took aim, and fired at it. His bullets ricocheted off the concrete floor, but thankfully lodged themselves harmlessly into the resin-covered walls. The facehugger swiftly returned, its lashing tail sliced through the air, leaving a vicious gash on Gauss' leg. He fell to a knee but reacted with a reflex honed in the crucible of danger. Gauss focused his weapon on the trajectory of the creature, the sharp crack of the WY ES-4 punctuated the dampened eerie silence.

A hit! The facehugger, momentarily stunned, convulsed in grotesque, extraterrestrial agony. Gauss fired off a couple more rounds, but they went wide. The alien's resilience defied the initial assault, and it lunged once more. This time, its acidic blood poured upon Gauss's arm as he grappled with the relentless creature. In the claustrophobic melee between man and monster, his survival hung in the balance. With a swift, determined motion, Gauss turned his face away from the threat, his hands gripping tightly onto the creature as he forcibly pushed it to the limits of his reach. This might hurt.

He squeezed the trigger of his weapon, unleashing a decisive shot to end the menace. The air crackled with tension as the electrostatic pistol discharged. The pulse of energy tore squarely through the facehugger and the creature's exoskeleton gave way while more of its acidic blood sprayed forth.

Gauss swiftly retracted his hands and forearms and removed his gloves, skillfully avoiding most of the spatter of corrosive blood, managing to minimize the risk of further injury.

An eerie, hissing echo filled the air as a the imperious figure of the juvenile queen rose once again from the floor. Gauss fired off the remaining bullets in his clip until it sizzled and shocked him with static charge, causing him to drop the pistol.

Recoiling, Gauss shuffled backward, scooting himself with his elbows. The temporal illusion of combat bullet-time came over him as the queen rose above him, unleashing a vengeful shriek, fuel by fury at the desecration of her nest. In that suspended moment, billows of fire erupted, casting an intense glow upon the alien sovereign from both its front and rear. The inferno surged forward, crashing into the queen, engulfing it in a cataclysmic blaze, immolating the once-menacing xenomorph.

Gauss pressed on until he reached the reassuring solidity of a nearby wall. Surveying his surroundings, he discerned that Sharpey had emerged from the elevator, while Dokes, wielding a flamethrower, sat facing the dying queen. Saygin stood by, gripping Gauss by the collar with one hand and the other hand firing a magnum at the queen.