ALEC was at the north entrance to the conference room trying to finagle the manual door control to get it open. Two soldiers acting as his personal bodyguards were with him as the door unlocked and slid open under the manual release mechanism he had activated.
Suddenly, as he stepped into the doorway, a gaping maw snatched him up ferociously. Rows of hot knives pierced his body as he screamed and then the reptilian beast rent him in two, tossing the remains across the room. Alec's bodyguards immediately fired at the nightmare as it stepped into the room, barely visible in the low emergency lighting.
Tiet and Wynn had their blades drawn and ignited-Grod activated his plasma glove. The beast launched a burst of flame at one soldier as another of the monsters sailed over the first into the conference room, pinning the other man to the floor and tearing away his life in an instant. A spicor from Wynn's hand caught the first animal in the side of the head; disintegrating a large enough portion to drop it dead. Tiet deftly carved an arc of light into the second as it was busy dismantling the bodyguard pinned under its foot.
Multiple screeches coming from the room beyond the open doorway were cause enough for Tiet to back away from his kill. There were more of them; a lot more.
"Aerogores!" shouted Grod. "Just like the ones we faced out in the city."
"Or those same ones have tracked us down here," said Wynn.
Behind them, an ellipse of light carved through the other locked doors. The piece fell into the room and Kale and Emil entered.
"Not these things again!?" said Kale
More of the creatures were beginning to move into the room; sniffing at their dead ones and glaring at the burning corpse of the first bodyguard that had been attacked.
"Tiet, I don't think this is a fight we want to have right now," said Wynn.
"We've got to get everyone out of here!"
Tiet tapped on his communicator pin. "Mirah, evacuate the facility. You've got to get to the ship now and get out of the base."
"I can't leave. My patient, Ramah, is too weak."
"Don't worry, I'm sending the boys down to help." He turned to them. "Boys, get down to the Med-lab and help her get the girl to the ship. Tell everyone you come across to get to the ships and evacuate the base immediately."
Grod blasted one of the beasts standing in the doorway with his plasma glove. It writhed in agony and after a few seconds, moved no more.
"And be careful," said Wynn. "They may have entered the base through more than one entrance."
"Come on guys!" said Juli, terrified, from just beyond the portal they had cut to gain entrance.
They obeyed without any argument; stepping back through and heading away quickly into the darkness with the glow cast by their ignited blades as their only light.
Flame erupted from one of the aerogores as it peeked inside the room from behind the two dead in the doorway. The men could hear many more writhing and screeching in the darkness beyond.
"Maybe we can hold them here," suggested Tiet as Grod fired more bursts of plasma energy at the creatures trying to enter through the doorway.
Pounding from above drew their attention. They looked up only to find another aerogore smashing its way through the mesh grille that covered the ventilation conduit in the ceiling. It fell by its own weight into the room, just in front of them, and recovered quickly; springing into action against them. Tiet was the closest and bounded away from its lightning fast strike as Wynn hit it broadside with a spicor disc. It howled and fell over going wild from the pain of having a quarter of its abdomen obliterated by the resulting dispersion burst.
Heavy steps were heard again from above as more of the monsters filed through the conduit and headed into the room. Tiet leapt over the one still writhing on the ground and followed his companions out of the conference room using the portal cut by the boys. There was almost no emergency lighting visible at all in the corridor. They hoped they were alone for the moment. The lack of light gave the animals a definite advantage.
"I don't sense anything out here," said Wynn cautiously.
Behind them, multiple aerogores were pounding away at the locked doors. The cut portal was much too small for any of them to fit through, but they were denting the door noticeably and it was quickly giving way to the abuse.
"They'll be through that door in seconds," said Grod.
"Come on, we've got to warn everyone we can to get out of here before the place becomes overrun with those things," said Tiet as he ran off into the dark corridors ahead with the others taking up pursuit.