Richard stood in a field of endless red sand. A cold night breeze blew across the field. The gentle wind billows and carries with it sand that gently knocks on his ballistic goggles and annoyingly making it’s home on his ruffled hair - every now and then he had to spit out sand that got into his mouth and around his lips. He aimed his stoic glance towards the distance where thousands of meters of red desert is illuminated by thousands of red flares. Nothing has moved. Nothing has registered on his motion detector. This whole oversized MEGAFOB wall duty is pointless. There are no hostiles for miles all around and they have sentries anyways.
He takes a deep sigh, walking back and sitting on the ground right behind the metal barricade seeking shelter from the annoying drifts of sand. He would pull out a thick cuban cigar out of his USCM satchel and stuff it inbetween his lips, next he rummages trough his pocket in search of his lighter. There werent any. Annoyed, he would stuff his hand into his satchel again, to find… no lighter. Had he really forgotten his lighter back on the Almayer?
Richard groans loudly, cursing, and calling himself an idiot over and over again. He tore the cigar out of his mouth and stuffs it back in his satchel. He stands up again, eyes scanning the red distance again that greets him with the same old view of nothing but red.
There was nothing to do, other than to stare at the endless red. His entire squad had disregarded command’s orders and fought at the frontlines, they didnt even bother to try and get the COMMS tower up, even hours after deployment, leaving him deprived of even the usual radio chatter. He had to do something, anything, to occupy his mind, or the dullness of the endless red would kill him before the alien bugs gets the chance.
His mind would drift into daydream and reminisce about his childhood, until a quiet ping from his motion detector snapped him back to reality. As he looked down to check his motion detector, Richard would feel a cold shiver run down his spine.
4 movements detected nearby, Richard would stand up again, eyes panically scanning the endless red again, but… nothing. His motion detector would beep again, they are getting closer, 5 meters. Richard lost his nerves and ran back to the secondary barricades behind him, only to feel the ground beneath open up and swallow him. Something violently bit his leg like a bear trap and yanked him to the ground to it’s level. Richard crashed into the ground with a thud, blood and sand staining his vision of the starry night above.
A large PIG sized orange bug enter his view as it pins him into the ground, it’s maw dripping with his blood and it’s eyeless features staring at him murderous intent. FUCK, where is his gun?! No time to think. The bug’s massive digging claws slams down onto Richard’s shoulder, splitting bone, muscles, and sinews, as blood gush out from the wound like a fountain. Helplessly, Richard attempts to crawl away, raising his head about the ground to scream at the rest of his squad in the inner FOB. He would jerk again in pain as a red dog-like bug pierces it’s sharp tail trough his flank, entering his torso.
Sharp claws would grapple him, digging and ripping into his flesh, pinning him into the ground, immobilizing him, leaving him helpless as the bugs would yank off his helmet and forcefully press a facehugger over his head. Richard could only scream in muffled agony as his conciousness faded away.