The swarm seemed to shrink beneath the onslaught of bullets.  The slugs ricocheted off it's skin, skittered along the grates, and punched rough, tattered holes in the plastic walls.  They did not seem to be doing much visible damage to it, but the swarm wilted and tucked itself into the wedge where wall met floor nonetheless.  It swung its core's burning turbine back as if to protect it, leaving a swathe of bubbling red metal in its wake.  A barely visible haze of black metal dust drifted from it, the only visible effect the bullets seemed to have.<br/><br/>The plane trembled beneath you, the whine of the engines rising an octave.  The floor took on a noticeable tilt as it began to dive.  A tide of smoking casings and flattened hollow point rounds cascaded past your feet to pile at the base of the hatchway.  Jie's corpse rolled, but came to stop when his leg caught in a doorway.  His rifle skittered down the floor, bounced off your shoe, and smashed into the growing pile of spent ammunition like a bowling ball.<br/><br/>Despite the thunder of the rifles and the shriek of the engines, you distinctly hear a light tinkling sound, as if someone had broken a thin sheet of ice over their knuckles.  The swarm jerked, repositioned its cables, and threw itself into the nearest room; coincidentally, the very same room Alec had been in ninety seconds earlier.  The molten metal immediately began to cool, fading from red to dark orange.<br/><br/>"Hold fire!" the woman shouted.  "Reload, regroup!"  The two soldiers farthest from the hatch began walking backwards very slowly, their boots struggling to find good purchase on the tilted floor.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Rebekah Graham and Sean Gallegar</span></strong><br/><br/><em>"Do you know where this leads?"</em><br/><br/>"To the C-" the woman with the round face began.  Her dark eyes were wide with, what, fear?  Adrenaline?  Her heads were as solid as rock, though, and reloaded the rifle with smooth, practiced ease.  "It leads to the rest of the plane," she finished.<br/><br/>The delicate sound of breaking ice came again, louder and closer.  "Open it!  16807, 16807!" she cried, referring to the keypad set into the wall next to the hatch.  There was an inset where a plastic flap had covered it, but it had been popped open in the chaos.<br/><br/><hr/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Alec Llewellyn and Zoey Calhoun</span></strong><br/><br/>They reached the hatch unscathed, although likely stumbling on underfoot casings along the way.  Bullets had been flying over their heads, but guard at the hatch seemed to have excellent aim.<br/><br/>It was a huge, heavy, solid looking chunk of metal that seemed ripped straight from the boiler room of a Cold War era battleship.  The wall it was set in looked just as sturdy, but it was difficult to gauge thickness.  The bunker like construction was certainly out of place on an airplane, regardless.<br/><br/>The guard was shouting, "16807, 16807!"<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The tinkling sound came a third time, this time much closer.  One of the soldiers shouted, "It's going through the walls!" and then it was there.<br/><br/>The swarm burst out through the wall of Zoey's room like a wrecking ball through taut paper.  It's cables ripped the walls apart, and it thrust it's heavy core through their tattered remains.  The turbine left a red rimmed hole in its wake, dripping viscous white gobs of molten plastic that fell in odd lines through the tilted corridor.  The cancerous smell of burnt plastic joined the reek of gunpowder and the overpowering ozone.  It was suddenly significantly warmer.<br/><br/>When the swarm thrust its way into the corridor, cutting the two distant soldiers off from the others, all hell broke loose.<br/><br/>"Open fire!" someone shouted.<br/><br/>"No, crossfire, crossfire!" the woman shouted back.<br/><br/>Ice broke, the swarm coiled towards the two nearer soldiers, and the lights went out as the plane lurched into freefall.<br/><br/>Some of the soldiers began to shoot, their muzzle flashes strobing down the corridor.  The light thrown off by the swarm's turbine, brutally bright, was a dark red that lingered on the very fringe of human vision.  It blurred as much as it illuminated, smudging details and edges into a continuous smear of crimson.  The soldiers turned on flashlights, but the light slid off the swarm like water on a smooth rock.<br/><br/>The swarm lunged at the two soldiers standing between it and the hatch.  Its cables pierced one of the soldier's torso in five different spots, and then threw the thrashing body into Zoey's room.  There was an audible<em>crack</em>as bones shattered.  His squaddie backpedaled, firing at full auto.  The swarm flinched beneath the onslaught until the backpedaling soldier's boot slipped on an errant casing.  Her rifle stitched bullet holes up the wall and ceiling as she screamed.  The swarm was already pouncing, cycling its turbine forward so that's it's superheated exhaust raked her from crotch to head.  The reek of burning rubber and charred flesh joined the sickening menagerie.<br/><br/>The cables thrashed, punching holes in the plastic walls for purchase.  The turbine was a white-red ring standing stark in the darkness, spinning and<em>pulsing</em>with malevolent intelligence.  This close, you could see individual points, tiny obsidian shards, shifting and moving in and on the thing's body.  You could hear the dull roar of it, like a distant jet engine.  You could feel the heat baking off it, and for a moment you may even forget that you're in one of the coldest places on earth.  The smell of ozone was so bad that you could taste it, feel it coating your mouth.<br/><br/>The turbine pivoted off the unlucky soldier's remains, a satanic eye that fixated on you with brutal, sickening intent.<br/><br/>It surged forward.