Rennac began to scan over the creatures as they got close enough to make out some details, his mind working a mile a minute to find where to place his shots to have the greatest effect. Head shots were the obvious choice but that was where the creature's chitin was likely hardest and was most likely to deflect or even ricochet bullets depending just how hardened it was. No, he needed to aim more for the gaps in the chitin, areas that was held by the membrane which would allow the creatures movement. The neck area became the most promising. Then he noticed their insect-like body, an idea coming to his head. "Smoke." He said simply. "If they are insectoid they may be inhibited by inhaling smoke." He grabbed one of the colonists that were running suplies on the wall, stopping him for a moment. "Have you ever tried using smoke canisters or grenades against these things?"

The man Rennac had grabbed looked at him incredulously, "Our Xeno-Biologist thought of that, then he was killed. We don't have enough smoke for hundreds of millions of bugs. You want to help, aim for the big ones." He shoulders out of Rennac's grip and continued to run the valuable supplies to the defend stations before the tide entered into the kill zone.

The tide was getting louder as it got closer, the bright moon lighting them up in dim, faint illumination. Their dripping teeth and glinting claws hungry for blood. So hungry that they began to trample over each other, growing their tide to four feet off the ground as they tumbled and trampled over each other.

On the walls, the colonists readied themselves for the last time, a few teams manning bigger mechanisms made the first call, "Launch!" They shouted as from their make shift ballistea fired literal 50 gallon drums into the fields in front of the tide, and as they trampled over them, the fuses on the barrels ended and exploded the volatile fuel inside, casting licking flames out and around on the bugs, burning and blasting a few hundred at least, but the bigger effect was the light. The light seemed stun them, even blind them and they scurried away from the bright light, the ones inside suffering with shrieks of agony, but the others giving the fire pile a wide birth.

By now the bugs were within firing range and the war cries came up again, and so did a hail of bullets. They couldn't miss, blasting several into green mush and breaking limbs off of others with simple ease.

Ryder also took the same route, letting out a booming roar and pulling the trigger on his Chain-Gun, sending 6,000 rounds per minute to erupt from his gun in a pleasurable whirring sound. All he had to do was tilt his arm and a trail of corpses formed wherever he aimed.

Yet it didn't seem to be enough, the tide was getting closer on all fronts. Some were slower than others, like the front Ryder had, and the fronts with pyres burning, but the end result was the same, the horde was getting closer.

Rennac cursed his luck and resettled his sights on the field before him, leveling both pistols along the the edge of the rushing horde. Just out of range. A little closer. A few more feet. "There!" The wolfen opened fire on the bugs, aiming for wherever he saw two chitinous plates were separated or at least were not a single piece of armor. If he had as few shots as he did he needed as many of them to count. As soon as the barrels lit on fire he saw the bugs screeching and being disoriented by the light put out by the fire. The light. A wide smirk came across his face as an idea came to mind. He would need any reflective surface he could get his hands on and some oil, but if they hated the light so much then he could use that as a weapon. Not a lethal one, but enough to disorient groups without having to waste the barrels copiously. There was also the option of lining the walls with the fire though that was a hazard all it's own. Still, once he was running low he could hand off his remaining clips to Jack who would need them more before hgoing to hand to hand.

Jackdaw, if she was unnerved by the sight of the insectoid army, did not show it. Her sentinel gaze did not waver from the horde, though beneath her helmet her eyes narrowed, unsure. She leveled her aim, swapping from one spot to another; she knew she could hit one -how could she not?- but what use would it be? Her pistol might kill a dozen or so, but after that how could she expect to survive in that in close range?

Those thoughts lasted only a few moments before being shoved away. She had no room, no time, and no patience for second guesses. She had a job to do, and she'd do it. If they got close, they would die; by her hands and the hands of the others.

With that conviction, she opened fire on the first few that got close enough to her range.

Taerys could only laugh at the absurdity of their predicament as the bugs approached. Ammunition was limited, the walls were already getting to a dangerously terrible state of repair and there was also no way to get out if they got trapped. Well...they were already trapped. At this point it was just a matter of time. Still, if they could get comms back up then there might be a chance of getting out. Odds were against them but then again when weren't they? It wasn't impossible just...highly improbable. First, though, they needed to deal with the things outside.

With a quick glance down at her pistol, then back up at the large insects, she shrugged and took aim. Most likely, her shots weren't going to matter but fighting 1 million of these things was still better than 1 million and 20. Taerys' finger pulled back on the trigger a number of times, each squeeze accompanied by the all too satisfying slump of a dead bug. After she'd burned through her first magazine, she moved towards a section of the wall that was more sparsely guarded and reloaded. She could only imagine what it'd be like if those things got inside.

He scanned the ripples until the bugs appeared--the challenge was figuring out where to shoot, with so many targets. As fast as they were coming, it turned out to be a bit useless that he got the rifle from Jackdaw--but he still used it, catching the bugs at the chinks in their joints and bringing them down as quick as he could, dropping one after another.

The swarm kept coming; no matter how many anybody killed the giant mass of chitin, tooth, and claw kept coming. Undeterred, they trampled their dead, some did stop to eat of their dead species, but for each one that stopped, a hundred thousand more continued. The White Ones did something strange though, they stopped, about a mile from the colony, out of any effective range save that of high powered snipers. They just stood there, clacking their claws and making high pitched chirping sounds.

The colonists kept up their assault for a big longer, launching bomb barrels and shooting any gun they had or made. But then a few began to pour a liquid substance down the sides of the walls. it smelled strong and very fumy, not bad, but not good either. It was thick and slow to flow, but did to actively. Yet as the green-ish tar flowed down, the colonists didn't seem to be affected, but they did ease up on there shooting and urged the others to be careful and to step away from the edge.

Ryder didn't hear any of it, but his weapon was over anybody's head due to his height, so he seemed to be safe about it anyway. So he just continued to unload into the mass, beneath his massive helmet he had a huge smile. Ryder loves his fights, and this was going to be a crazy one.

Rennac took note of the pause,wondering for a few moments what it might mean. His idea then went back to his idea, wondering if he might be able to rig up something that would work. He went over to one of the colonists. "Do you have any sort of beacon tower? Something you used to signal groups coming back? Maybe even a few mirrors laying around?" If he could get one of those barrels of oil to burn with mirrors around to focus the rays, it could severely disorient the bugs for gunfire to tear them apart. It may even scare them off. The latter was a longshot but it would at least assist in future attacks.

Jackdaw released the trigger as the horde came to a screeching halt. For a massive army to come to a halt in unison; it reminded her much of a hivemind. She of course had no actual idea as to the make up of the insects' structure, but to her, a move like that was indicative of a higher power. She scanned the immediate horde for any odd-looking ones, though quit the idea immediately. Why would a leader put themselves amongst the drones? If something was controlling them, or commanding them, it couldn't be too close.

She stepped back as the colonists began to poor the tar-like substance down the side of the walls. Fire? Maybe. Not a bad idea, though she wished they'd have led with that, really. With a few brief moments of peace, she dropped the empty clip from her pistol and reloaded.

Six pulled back a bit, hitching the rifle up onto his shoulder as the bugs stopped and the colonists began to ... retaliate? He turned to the nearest one, and called out a quick, "This gonna keep 'em off?" They were the resident close-as-they-could-get-to-experts, after all--they'd lasted this long, figure was that they'd have some tricks up their sleeves.

The horde just stopped, almost like they didn't want to attack anymore, but their teeth were still gnashing and claws still raking the ground. For several tense seconds they just seemed to know that guns would kill many of them should they continue, but they didn't care. They wanted blood, but yet something held them back.

On the walls, the colonists didn't stop. They had seen this before, each night they did this. The probing wave comes in, then the tide follows. More and more tar flowed over the walls as they tried to get some on every inch of the walls. And while they tired as hard as they could, it was slow work. Yet several walls were already covered, about 30% of the ring around the colony and spreading. One colonist turned to give Six a rapid response, "If we are lucky, this will help for a few hours." Then he returned to helping to spread the substance.

Ryder did as his teammates and quit firing, looking around at the others as they worked or collected their breath. Not making a sound, but one shuffling uneasily. What that mass out there was doing was not normal by any means and it was clearly making him fidgety.

From back out on the fields, the big white bugs standing infrequently amount the others, chirped and clacked their claws in shot quick bursts, then in a final move they all raised their heads in unison and let out a ringing shriek that echoed for miles and the horde of smaller bugs resumed their assault, but this time, they were not holding back and they stormed down at a much more savage rate, stacking on top of each other three bugs high in some places. Yet the big albino ones that towered above the tide, never moving their legs, they only continued to click and chirp a mile out.

Jackdaw brought his pistol back up when the insects began to charge again, catching sight of the towering ones remaining further back. There was no doubt in her mind then that they had some importance, some connection to whatever method was being used to control the horde. However there was no way anyone could get through the mass of insects there. Never had she sat down to really think about how vast millions of a thing could be, and now she was being shown just how overwhelming it was.

The closer they approached the less she liked their odds. Millions, literally millions. They didn't have that sort of ammunition, hell, they didn't have that sort of /fire/. Numbers like that would snuff out any flame through sheer mass; they were sitting ducks watching a fuse crawl closer and closer with each passing moment.

"This is useless, we need to figure out how to reestablish communications, now, or these things are going to overrun us!" she shouted, breaking from her position and making her way to Rennac, though her attention turned to the nearest colonist. "Where's your communications' center?"

Rennac turned from surveying the site to find pieces to create some sort of powerful light source to Jackdaw apparently trying to find the communications center. As much as he liked the idea of calling in an orbital strike it would be impossible. All electrical signals were being absorbed, not even just blocked. Only something along the light spectrum could possibly be conveyed- "Thats it! Sending an optical signal to be transferred through the ship's infrared sensor relay! A bit antiquated but if those technicians will be able to decipher the apparent glitch as a message!" HIs bit of genius was reserved for himself sadly before he went over to Jack at the colonist. "If we're going to transfer a signal from the radio frequency spectrum to infrared light, we'll need a red laser diode. Do you have ANYTHING that remotely resembles a laser security grid? A laser tripwire mine? I will even make due with one of those handheld laser pointers at this point."

(Double post, please disregard)