Hicks didn't really care for Lt. Gorman, who in his opinion, was rather an inexperienced field commander. After breakfast, he and the rest of his fellow marines gathered in the Sulaco's cargo hold and to hear what the civilian Ripley had to say. He listened to what happened to her and couldn't believe what he was hearing, but he took it serious because he might need the information that was on the disk containing the data that Ripley had given out to the marines. After the meeting, he and his Sgt. Apone gathered to prep the dropship to land on LV-426 and prepare for the worst case scenario. He took his work serious and listened to the disk containing the data Ripley had told them. And without any hesitation, packed his shotgun just to be on the safe side

When the marines had finally gotten to the surface of the planet, he and his platoon of marines went to investigate the second level of the complex. Accompanied by smartgun operator Drake, he checked out rooms and referred to his motion tracker.. A closer examination showed something interesting. There were strange burn marks, possibly from one of the creatures he heard Ripley talking about. There was also signs of pulse rifle fire and barricades set up in different junctions of the complex. Now he began to understand the urgency of the mission and couldn't know why the others didn't take it serious.

Proceeding inside, Drake at point, Gorman, then Burke, Bishop, Frost, Weirzbowski, Hicks, and finally Ripley. Keeping a close eye on Ripley, Hicks noticed that she was standing in the door way of a specimen containment area. When the marines had finally arrived at the processing station. As the marines proceeded to sub-level 3 and when they had gotten there, they saw the strangest thing. It looked like it was growing from the processor unit, rather strange Hicks thought. As they moved through, the med-tech Dietrich took a piece of it off and started to examine it.

Unknowingly, they were sitting on a nuclear bomb, they didn't know about the insides of such a complex machine, but they were there to investigate, and then get the hell out. After Apone collected the magazines, they proceeded further, the marines stared in horror what they had saw. The colonists were there alright, but it looked like something from inside of them exploded out of their chests. Hicks bent down and investigated an open egg, with it, one of the creatures, dead and decaying. The marines started to look to see if there were any more survivors. Dietrich found one, which then resulted in a chest burster that they flamed. Then, at that moment, the sounds of hissing can be heard in the complex.

The marines became nervous and started to backout, fearing the worse. Dietrich was grabbed from behind and she torched Frost. He fell down to the next sub-level and the bag of ammunition was left behind. Hicks ran to Crowe and Weirzbowski and drug them away from the explosives. Hicks managed to get away in time, but not Crowe. He ran over to his fellow marines side and saw that the explosion had killed him. All hell breaks loose and it's time to get the fuck out of there. Just then, Hicks and Vasquez noticed alien getting ready to kill Drake, Vasquez opened fired on it, the creatures blood splashed on Drakes face and chest and ate him up. Drake's flamethower was still activated and it had caught the APC's inside on fire. Hicks reeled back with Vasquez so that both of them didn't catch on fire, Hicks then got up and grabbed to shut the door. Another alien started to force it's way inside, "EAT THIS!!" Hicks jams the muzzle of the shotgun into the aliens mouth and pulls the trigger, acid and chunks of the aliens skull go flying, hitting Hudson's arm. The APC flies out of the atmosphere processor. Hicks looked at the bewildered Ripley and put his hand on her shoulder and moved into the rear of the APC to check on Gorman, who had suffered from a concussion.

• "Well, I believe that Corporal Hicks is the next one in command." --Ripley
• "Corporal Hicks...." --Burke
• "This mission is under military jurisdiction, and Hicks is next in the chain of command, isn't that right Corporal?" --Ripley
• "We cannot let him make that kind of decision, he's just a grunt! Uhh, no offense.." --Burke
• "None taken, ...Ferro do you copy, were gonna need an immediate evac. I say we take off, nuke the entire site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure. Let's do it!" --Hicks

When the dropship came into view, Hicks noticed something was wrong, so did Ripley. When the ship got closer to the ground, it had hit some rocks and crashed. Hicks ran to Ripley and the girl's side and shielded them both from the blast. After the ship had exploded, Hicks went over to Gorman and removed some of the burning wreckage away from him. He then went to go and see if the others were alright and ordered a search of the wreckage to see if anything was salvageable and could take to operations before the aliens started to move. In a few minuets, Hudson found the layout of the complex and a plan was made as to where the sentries would go and which barricades had to be repaired. As this plan went on, Newt, who was trying to get a look, couldn't quite see, Hicks noticed and lifted her up and had sit her on the table. After the plans were set, the group moved in to do the work, Burke and Newt would collect food supplies and drinking water, Hudson and Vasquez would work on

C and D guns and repair the barricades, Ripley and Hicks would set up guns A and B. Hicks first told Hudson and Vasquez to repair the barricade and he would test the guns to see if they had worked. With the knowledge gained through the USCMC academy, he set up the computers, tracking systems and camera's on them. They worked perfect, although they would need double the ammunition, he prayed to himself that the barricade would hold until a rescue team arrives. He then went back to work, ordering Hudson to test the guns..

After everything had been completed, Hicks went to his post and monitored the complex with the camera systems. All of a sudden, an alarm had sounded, Ripley burst into the operations area.. The robot sentries came to life as the aliens made their way towards the barricade.. Hicks watched as the guns started to mow down the creatures. The ammo counters started to go down quick... The aliens had made it to the pressure door. As the aliens continued the assault, Bishop radioed in, said he had some bad news.

All of them piled into another part of the complex and saw Bishop standing at one of the windows. He told them to watch near the atmosphere processor. And then, in a matter of seconds, a white burst came from the ground. Hicks didn't quite like the looks of this.. Hicks told Bishop to get whatever he needed together and Vasquez and Ripley would help him. He then went back to his station to check on how things were holding up. Hicks started to show her his pulse rifle..

• "I want you to meet a personal friend of mine. This, is the M41-A pulse rifle with over and under *KERCHUNK!* pump action grenade launcher, feel the weight..." --Hicks
• "Ok, what do I do?" --Ripley

Hicks showed Ripley how to reload the grenade launcher mechanism, how to fire it, and switch over from the explosive tip caseless rounds of bullets to the M40 grenades. He then issued her the extra pulse rife, with a clip of ammunition and bid her a good night's rest. He then went back to his position to make sure that things were still ok within the complex. Checking the camera systems to make sure that they weren't damaged by the aliens assaults. He then noticed that Gorman was awake finally and briefed him on what was going on, Gorman was very impressed.

When the marines entered med-labs, Hicks noticed Ripley and Newt struggling with facehuggers that were released from the stasis tubes. Hudson shot out the glass and Hicks jumped through. When he entered the holding area, he ran over to Ripley and helped her hold the creature away from her face. Gorman came over to help him, Gorman untwisted it's tail from around her neck and Hicks yelled to Vasquez to get ready and kill it. Both men threw the creature into the corner and Vasquez shot it. Newt ran over to Ripley and she tried to console her, Hicks put his arm around Ripley and asked her who could have done this, she replied Burke.

When they had entered operations, they noticed Burke looked quite nervous and had him sit down and started to question him. But, the power went down before both marines could 'punish' the company rep.. Vasquez and Hudson went out to the corridors, Hudson to the left, Vasquez on the right. Hicks and Ripley exchanged looks.. Ripley and Hicks started to prepped their pulse rifles, Hudson started to notice movement, but Vasquez wasn't registering any, Vasquez moved toward Hudson and they were both ordered back into operations. When both marines entered operations, Hicks and Vasquez went to work sealing the door, Hudson still counting. After the two had finished welding the door shut, Hudson read off the count, the count seemed a little off..

Hicks moved one of the ceiling tiles with his pulse rifle and scanned around the ceiling top, when he looked forward, he thought that he was in a nightmare. The aliens were there, too much to even count, frightened by this, he lost his footing and yelled as he pulled the trigger to his pulse rife at the ceiling. Tons of aliens then spilled into the room. Everyone started firing on the approaching aliens. While this was going on, Burke escaped, Ripley started to follow him while the marines started to fall back...

Just then, the aliens had finally pulled Hudson down into the floor, Hicks, loosing his best friend, started to get up when another alien jumped out of the floor. Hicks rolled backwards and blasted it out of the air, Vasquez yelled to him to get moving and ran into the corridor. Ripley told him that the door was locked and with ease, pulled out his torch and went to work on the door. In a few seconds, the door was opened and the remaining marines along with Ripley and Newt ran inside. Vasquez went to work on locking the door that Hicks opened, and Hicks went to work on the other door, just then,

Gorman told him to follow the woman and the girl, he would be next with Vasquez. He ran down the air shaft, making sure that he didn't loose sight of Ripley and Newt. Hicks then radioed Bishop.. Ripley climbed over the covered fan first that was spinning in the air shafts, Hicks helped Newt up, just then, there was an explosion that rocked the air shaft and Newt fell to a different part of the air shaft that looked like it went to a sewer of sorts...

Hicks slammed his pulse rifle to jam the fan in the air shaft, both Ripley and Hicks leaned in to the next air shaft, trying to get a hold of her before she fell. Newt then slipped out of the jacket and fell down the air shaft, Ripley, screaming, was ready to climb down there herself, Hicks grabbed Ripley... Both Ripley and Hicks made it out of the air shaft, Hicks made sure that he went first, just in case any 'company' decided to show itself. He didn't want nothing to happen to both the girl or Ripley, he lost so much in this mission, he sure didn't want to loose those two as well. Finally!! Hicks thought, they would get the girl out and get the hell off of this bastard planet and make sure that the corps would do something about this menace, but first, they had to get the girl out of the sewer system... Hicks pulled out his blow torch, working frantically, he heard the pinging from the motion tracker...

• "Hurry!!!" --Ripley
• "I know!!" --Hicks
• "I mean it!!" --Ripley
• "Almost there!!!" --Hicks

Just then, both heard the girl scream, Hicks started to kick in the floor, hoping that the girl could be saved, Ripley and Hicks moved into see if she was still there, nothing, except her doll's head floating in the water, Ripley went nuts...

• "NO!! NNNOOOOO!!!" --Ripley
• "They don't kill you, they'll...SHE'S ALIVE, SHE'S ALIVE!!" --Ripley
• "Alright, I believe you, she's alive, but WE gotta go, NOW!!!" --Hicks

Hicks grabbed Ripley and started to move through the corridors, scanning for the aliens, at the same time, he noticed an elevator. Being careful, he looked around the inside of the elevator and put Ripley inside. He then pressed the 'up' button and waited, nothing, he hit the button again, finally the doors started to shut, but an alien came flying into the elevator. Ready, Hicks fired on the alien, but as a result from the blast, Hicks got acid on him, and the acid started to eat into his armor and his face... Ripley helped him get his armor off and it fell to the ground, still burning. Finally, the elevator arrived to the top of the shaft. Both emerged from the door, the armor still burning, choked both Ripley and Hicks.

Bishop noticed both adults struggling, he ran over and helped Ripley with the injured Hicks. After getting Hicks into the dropship, he started to put some medicine and gauze on his wounded chest, and then gave himself some pain killers. He then got another piece of gauze with some more medicine on it and holding it up to his injured face... In the meantime, Ripley was getting ready to get Newt out of the alien nest and Bishop finally made it to the landing pad at the atmosphere processor... Ripley then starts to leave, Hicks turns to watch her go...

Hicks fell asleep, when all of them had finally gotten to the Sulaco, Ripley had cleaned his dressings and got him ready for hypersleep. She put him into his cryo-tube and told him goodnight, kissing her fingers and putting them on his cheek, and telling him goodnight. She then put herself into her cryo-tube, for the long ride home.

Written by RAY FINCHAM. (rayden22@juno.com)