Comments (Page 64)

I think that Humans are Interesting as they are Characters we can CONNECT with more than say ALIEN Races or A.I/Robots.....

I dont think you have to have Xenomorphs to have a ALIEN MOVIE!

But you have to have something that has a Thread of Connection, with Prometheus this CONNECTION was the Engineers via them being the Space Jockey and thus Implied had a HAND in the Creation or USE of the Xenomorph.

I think the Problem with having the Xenomorph Origins indicated as via David is that it makes its ORIGIN much less ALIEN... but also the Time-Frame would mean the Eggs on LV-426 are NOT there some 17 Years before ALIEN.

As i had said there could be a Few Ways to FIX things... but its UNLIKELY we shall see that.

I think you have to have Human Characters to make a Movie Work, but you only NEED a Few if you have other Humanoid Characters...... i have said before the IDEA i had for a Prometheus 3 (prior to Alien Covenant) would have seen David and Dr Shaw arrive at a World that has a Handful of Engineers or so... like 6 with HUMANS (did we Originate on Earth? is the Earth the ONLY place to have Humans?).  But also some other Races too.

I think you have to have the Balance of Humans and Xenomorphs, but with A.I  i do think the Prequels had GIVEN too MUCH of a Emphasis on David.

Regarding the OT... i think that IF the TV Series is to be CANON to the MOVIES then it would in EFFECT mean that David could NOT have Created the Xenomorph but i also think the TV Series could CAUSE a WHOLE LOT of other Conflicts too.

CHAPTER 15: THE CITY

Date: January 7th, 2231. 1:25 AM

Locale: LV-1201, Primary Operations Complex. White Team Operation Zone

Harrison and Tomiko arrived at a broken door with fresh blood splattered all over the floor. The marine and corporate spy see the bodies of Iron Bear Mercs and Colonial Marines lying side by side. A shootout had happened. As the two traverse through the corridors, they eventually find themselves outside again. Two colonial marine smart gunners and three grunts were gunning down several xenomorphs. A Praetorian escaped from their sight. The marines and the corporate agent retreated inside the communication center, sealing the doors behind themselves.

“Harrison,” they called out his name. Harrison knew of these marines but not very well. Scott, Cameron, Fincher, Strauss and Pierre.

“If we override the security system, I can contact your ship” Tomiko suggested.

“Do it,” Harrison nodded.

“Harrison, you know this lady?” Cameron asked.

“She’s a friend,” Harrison replied.

“If you want to get to communications, take the elevator up and you should find the comm center” Cameron added.

“Thanks,” Harrison replied.

“Harrison, the signal’s fluctuating. Find the comm center and get it online,” Tomiko added. The marines and the corporate agent take the elevator up before reaching the comm center. Tomiko runs over to the Comm center, “I’m contacting the Verloc now” she taps at the console rapidly. “There’s a dropship inbound from the Verloc. ETA 15 minutes. Make sure that landing bay is clear of xenomorphs”

“We're going to need weapons,” Harrison added.

“Got you covered, Harrison” Tomiko replied, “Unlocking armory now”

Harrison walks over to an adjacent chamber, guns of all sorts aligned the walls. M41A Pulse Rifles, Smartguns, Minigun, a Weyland-Yutani Railgun, Flamethrower, and Missile Launcher. The marines grab as many guns as they can. The xenomorphs began gathering outside looking for a way into the communication center.

“Ready?” Harrison asked his fellow marines. They nodded. He nods to the Fincher to unseal the doors. The doors then slide open, the marines rush out to confront the xenomorph horde. They opened fire on the biomechanical horrors. The bullets tear open their black armor, acid blood spewed onto the floor. A praetorian roared angrily as she arrived too late to save her sisters. She bites off Pierre’s head before impaling Strauss. Fincher attempts to regroup with Scott and Cameron but the Praetorian trampled the fleeing marine. Cameron unloaded his minigun into the praetorians' hide. The minigun began to click, he was out of ammo. Cameron drops the minigun as he switches over to his Pulse Rifle. Harrison and Tomiko fired their sniper railguns into the hulking xenomorph’s center of mass, toppling the large xenomorph over to its death.

Johnson’s dropship flies overhead, its landing gear crushes the praetorian’s skull.

“Harrison, I need you to head for the Forward Pods. There is someone that needs our help. She is a friend of mine, several months back she got implanted with a xenomorph embryo. She is currently in cryo hibernation and I can’t leave her in that state”

“Johnson, head for the Forward Pods” Harrison ordered. The dropship changes course as it soars above the rocky canyon. The Forward Observation Pods come into view.

“I’ll keep in contact” Tomiko added

“Be careful, Tomiko” Harrison replied.

Date: January 7th, 2231. 1:50 AM

Locale: Tunnels leading from abandoned landing to the Zeta Ruins.

“Ivan has not reported?” General Rykov asked.

“No sir,” replied Chekov, an Iron Bear Mercenary, 

“He was a good man,” Rykov responded mournfully.

“He may not be dead, sir,” Chekov said hopefully.

Rykov’s body contorts and twists in pain, his arms and legs freezing up on him. How he manages to remain standing and holding the royal yautja biomask in his hand is through sheer will power. “Damn it. My medicine! Cheating black market. The latest stuff is shit. Each batch is worse than the last” Rykov growls to himself.

“It is the adrenaline, General. It breaks down the doses. I will get another,” Chekov replied.

“No. It will dull me. I must be sharp” Rykov insisted.

“General! I have a signal, but not one of yours. The frequencies and modulations are all wrong. It could be encrypted, sir” Chekov reported.

“Pull out the team. I will buy you as much time as I can,” Rykov ordered. He then raises the prince’s biomask up in the air, with a crooked smile Rykov then added, “They will find me.”

Paya’kan’di arrives into one of the oomen prefab structures crudely built within the mala’kak tunnel. He overhears the guards speaking, “The Excavation is still a go?” asked one of the Mercs.

“That’s the orders. If anything, they seem to be in more of a rush” replied the other Merc.

“I thought I heard something about a large-scale collection op. I saw combat-synths”

“The Doctor runs a big operation”

“There’s rumors of casualties. Explosions in the Pods,”

“You been here all day, right?”

“Yeah,”

“So don’t ask so many questions. You’ll feel better”

Paya’kan’di cloaks as he enters the room, he quickly thrashes the mercs throats out with his wristblades. He drags both of the merc’s bodies away.

Meanwhile Eisenberg and the remains of his team were traversing through an underground tunnel that lay just beneath the massive biomechanical city with its towering biomechanical skyscrapers and grand statues of the Space Jockey and their Engineer subjects. Eisenberg looks up nervously at the driver, “Patch me through to security team Zebra”

Locale: LV-1201, Near Hive Access tunnel and neighboring archeological dig site, Outer Engineer City.

“Zebra team, has the Verloc’s dropship arrived?” Eisenberg asked the synthetic guard. He is standing in a starport surrounded by thick walls topped with electrical fences. Behind him a UACMC dropship towers above him.

“Yes, sir” replied the combat synthetic. 

“I have changed the plan. We will not be taking the Empress back to the pods. Instead, we will proceed directly to the Verloc. Secure the dropship for lift off” Eisenberg demanded.

“Already done, sir” said the Combat Synthetic standing over the corpse of a colonial marine officer. His fellow combat synths line up the remaining captured marines before disposing of them; execution style.

“Excellent. Prep for cargo. I am bringing a guest” Eisenberg chuckles.

The Imperial Praetorian roars furiously as her hulking form slowly materializes from the shadows. Thick beads of saliva slog off her large metallic fangs. Her smaller sisters slowly crawl out from the shadows, drooling profusely. The xenomorphs swarm the tunnels within minutes of their arrival. No one was spared from their wrath.

Paya’kan’di wanders around the prephab structure, ignoring the oomen scientists poking and prodding the mala’kak structures. He stumbles upon an old mala’kak maintenance shaft. Its interior reminds him of a kainde amedha hive; except more uniformed and refined. He reached towards the tunnel’s end which opens into a massive hall. The Mala'kak had to be gigantic in size to construct a hall wall this large. The oomens had since constructed a monorail system that traverses the vast network of these grand corridors. The monorail train departs from its station.

Paya’kan’di leapt onto the ancient floor. His sensors were not picking up any oomens in sight. He shifted his vision to see if there was any kainde amedha present and there was something that caught his attention. It registers on the electric-vision but it wasn’t a kainde amedha but yet it was as well. 

The silhouette of the creature gave a distinct xenomorph profile but its head was more bulbous at its face while the apex of its skull was far more narrower than a typical xenomorph. It lacked the hard dark carapace of a typical xenomorph instead it was pale white and fleshy. It lacked the tubes of the drone/warrior variant on its back instead it had a series of fleshy looking spines adoring its spine. The Neomorph grabs something slithering along the hall floor. It too has the same signature as the Neomorph. The slithering worm-like creature’s body was smooth-like a snake. Its head was round and fat, but looks can be deceiving as the round head unfolds into a hammer head. The neomorph drops the hammerpede as it curiously approaches the yautja. Its face was more featureless than that of a xenomorph with only a small orifice in place of where its mouth should be. The hammerpede slithers back into a small acid burned hole littering the ancient city corridors.

The Neomorph lunges at the yautja, the small orifice widens in size as a pair of pink goblin shark-like jaws shoot out from it. Paya’kan’di reactively impaled the kainde amedha-like pyode amedha (soft meat) with his naginata. The creature hissed before falling to the floor dead. Paya’kan’di continues his trek down the ancient halls.

He spots another creature but different from the neomorph he had encountered earlier. This one resembled a neomorph but it was covered in a hard carapace like a xenomorph. However unlike the neomorph, this creature had a defined snout and lacked a tail and back spikes. It reminded Paya’kan’di of the Earth’s frogs. The Deacon opens its jaws, flashing its tiny teeth before shooting out its neomorph-like inner jaws as it growls territorially at Paya’kan’di. A loud groan echoed within the halls, the Deacon quickly retracted its inner jaws before fleeing down the corridor.

Paya’kan’di followed the fleeing diminutive kainde amedha. Another Neomorph leaps down from the monorail tracks on top of Paya’kan’di. He shoves it off, before decapitating it with the naginata. A hammerpede slithers out from its burrow, it unfolds its head into a hammer. It opens its mouth, Paya’kan’di impales the hammerhead snake creature with his naginata’s rear blade before tossing it into the air. The loud groan was heard again. A large fetus-like creature trekked down the halls, its head was even more bulbous than a neomorph and it has eyes. Its legs were small, almost vestigial, its arms were large and well developed…for walking and supporting its weight. 

Accompanying it was another set of creatures, they resembled oomens however they were picked up on the electro-vision like the other strange creatures. The abominations were no longer like the oomens, Paya’kan’di has encountered, they behave like the kainde amedha. Their features were twisted and their behavior feral. Some of them walked like a normal oomen while the others who sported more kainde amedha traits walked like them.

Paya’kan’di targeted the abominations, the tridot lasers marked the creatures. A loud humming resonated from the beam, the plasma caster screams as bolts of plasma rain down on the deformed oomens. The less humanoid ones bolted away from the plasma bolts as they charged at Paya’kan’di like deranged rabid baboons. The Prince turns his plasma caster on one, it explodes into a shower of acid. But he missed the other one. The abomination leapt onto the Prince, it tears off his biomask. The hoses spray compressed air everywhere. Paya’kan’di sees the abomination with his naked eyes, the creature was even more ugly than he thought. Despite only seeing monochrome red, the details of the creature’s face were more visible. The creature’s face was barely even oomen-like, eyes were sunken, nose had dissolved into small nostrils and its teeth were metallic. 

The deacon came back with more of its kind, the abomination looked up only to be swarmed by the diminutive creatures. Paya’kan’di quickly rolls out of the way as he quickly adorns his biomask. He looks back to see despite their shared appearance, the different morphs of creatures hold no loyalty to one another unlike the kainde amedha. The large creature groans as it attacks the Deacon swarm. The deacons quickly swarm the Beluga-head; it joins its fellow abominations in death.

Paya’kan’di quickly bolts down the hallway. The reclamation of his biomask was more important than engaging these new creatures.

Meanwhile back in the tunnels, “Are the sentry guns online yet?” shouts a nervous security guard. A predalien bursts from a grate above, twisting the guards head off. She pounces on the fleeing guard before implanting her sharp mandibles into the base of his skull. The very same predalien that escaped from Pod 5; She had since developed a praetorian crest on the back of her head.

The Imperial Praetorian senses her Predalien sister nearby. She had done her job disabling the annoying power currents the humans rely on for their very survival. The Imperial Praetorian orders her sisters to continue spreading across the tunnels, capturing the less resistant and killing off the most resistant. The Imperial Praetorian and her subordinates continue to follow the intangible connection to their Empress. 

“The dropship is en route, ETA 5 minutes” declared the truck guards. The Imperial Praetorian unleashed a bone chilling hiss, alerting the guards to her presence but they couldn’t see her. But they could hear her footsteps as they shook the ground. Her massive head gleaned from the dim overhead lights as she approached the grated fence. She tears the chain linked fence to pieces with her claws. The guards activate the massive lift to ascendant. Despite her weight and size the imperial praetorian stabs her claws into the metal paneling as she climbs up the shaft accompanied by her sisters. She directs her smaller sisters into the vents. 

“Kill it” the security guard screams

“It's in the vents!” the technician replied.

“Aghhhhhhhh!!!” Their screams echoed throughout the tunnels.

“Attention all personnel. There are xenomorphs loose beneath the landing pad. Do not let them near the control room,” the announcer's words fall on deaf ears as the xenomorphs swarm their way through. The xenomorphs began to cut off the hydraulic pistons that supply the facility with power.

“Hydraulic #2 disabled. What’s going on down there?” echoed a soon to be dead man. A xenomorph spitter vomited up a gallon of specialized digestive enzymes all over the guard’s face. 

Meanwhile the Imperial Praetorian arrives at a massive turn-around bridge. A xenomorph warrior stood alone on the bridge. She had metallic armor grafted onto her exoskeleton. The Praetorian calls out to her for assistance but the metallic-clad warrior ignores her commands; She was a Gen 2 Xenoborg, she only obeyed the humans. The xenoborg growls at her, for she stood between Praetorian and the Empress. The xenoborg locked its targeting laser on the Imperial Praetorian. 

The xenoborg raised a pulse rifle at the Praetorian, she began opening fire. Her thick exoskeleton absorbed most of the bullets. She charges into the xenoborg. The xenoborg is sent flying, the pulse rifle tumbles off the bridge. The xenoborg sprang back. She then swiped at the Imperial Praetorian’s face with her claws. Acidotic blood sprayed the bridge’s metallic surface. The Praetorian swipes at the xenoborg. 

The xenoborg dodges the hulking praetorian’;s advances. The xenoborg scurried like a monkey across the bridge searching for its pulse rifle. Once the xenoborg arrives towards the edge of the bridge, The Imperial Praetorian impales the distracted xenoborg. The Imperial Praetorian pulls her tail back, dragging the tratorious xenomorph along with it. She places both of her large claws on to its shoulder while pushing the rest of her tail through the xenoborg.

Eisenberg climbs out of the truck. He quickly arms himself with the WY-Railgun as he takes aim at the Praetorian. He then aims at the damaged xenoborg. The xenoborg head-case explodes but not from Eisenberg’s rifle but from a two yautja leaping down from the towering electric poles. The Praetorian tosses the lifeless xenoborg at the smaller predator, its acid blood burns the inexperience unblood. The more experienced blooded yautja aims his combi-stick for the praetorian’s neck. The Imperial Praetorian collapses her crown on her neck, the combi-stick scraps across the chitinous crown. The yautja loses his footing as the Praetorian bucks him off. She turns her attention to the injured yautja. She beheads the unblood with her inner jaws. 

The experienced blood quickly hurrles his smart disk into the Imperial Praetorian’s ribcage. The disk slices into her black chitinous armor, acid blood spots all over the ground but the disk then falls flat on the ground. She collapses onto the floor. Eisenberg smiled at the alien predator’s handiwork but they too are a threat to his goals. He must finish them off quickly. The yautja confidently walks over to the hulking xenomorph. The Praetorian waited for the yautja to get closer. He reaches over for the smart disk. The yautja he places it back on its holster before re-deploying his combi-stick. A bullet knicks his shoulder cannon’s power supply. The yautja turned his attention towards eisenberg. The Praetorian impales the yautja through the belly. 

She rises to her feet, she gives Eisenberg a glance before head biting the yautja. He drops his combi-stick. The Praetorian releases the dead blooded warrior onto the floor. 

“Security. Backup to the control room” Eisenberg’s entourage screamed into their mics, “Prepare the cargo trick for evacuation” Eisenberg quickly retreats back into the Cargo Truck. 

A voice booms over the Doctor’s radio, “Banking for final descent. Doctor, landing has not been extended. Recommend abort landing. Recommend alternative routing”

“Your advice is noted. And Ignored. Land” Eisenberg demands as he signals the truck to leave immediately. He glances at the Praetorian out from his window port.

The Imperial Praetorian spots the cargo truck leaving through the next tunnel corridor. She must free the Empress, she commands it. 

The Praetorian turns to see her sisters finally rendezvous with her. The Praetorian hisses to her sisters to follow her and the cargo truck.

“Warning landing beacon offline” the facility’s MUTHUR warning booms over the intercom. The landing beacon was mysteriously fried by an outside source.

Eisenberg orders his men to park the cargo truck, “Destroy the Empress. She will not gloat over me” he growls.

“Where’s the landing beacon?” The colonial marine dropship flies over the landing bay confused on where to land, “Pull up! PULL UP!!!” The dropship diverts from the landing bay, abandoning Doctor Arnaud Eisenberg to his fate.

“Not the dropship! No! No!” Eisenberg runs out to curse the fleeing dropship. The Imperial Praetorian was known by many names throughout her short life, The Ovomorph, The Chestburster, The Drone, The Warrior, and The Alpha Warrior. She orders her sister to surround the cargo truck. She could smell Eisernberg’s fear. Though he may be synthetic in body but he retained a human consciousness and brain. The Doctor raised his railgun at the Praetorian but she shiftly disarmed him, the railgun was sent flying across the landing pad. She swiped at him with her claws. Taking off one of his arms. She grabs him by the legs and raises him up like a doll. She bites off his other arm. She then grabs him by the torso as she then pulls off his pelvis along with his legs before discarding them. The shock from his synthetic body being torn apart renders Eisenberg unconscious.

The Imperial Praetorian holding the doctor carefully within her grasp walks over to the cargo truck. Eisenberg’s men are subdued as they are taken back to the hive. With her free hand, the Praetorian frees the Empress. The Empress roars in gratitude. The xenomorphs slowly retreat to the ancient malanuhm city.

Eisenberg slowly awakens, he is glued to the hive wall in thick scretid resin. His screams echoed the under chambers of the ancient city of the malanuhm. The stone faces of Shaw’s Engineers glare down at Eisenberg, as if they were gloating of his failures. He was surrounded by eggs and the various xenomorph breeds. The Imperial Praetorian gives Eisernberg a final glance before heading off deeper into the ancient city’s bowels as the Empress stood on top of her newly constructed “throne” looking down at the terrified cyborg as he continued to scream. She hisses gloatingly. 

Date: January 7th, 2231. 2:36 AM

Meanwhile deep within the Engineer city in a lone Weyland-Yutani research post. Rykov groans in pain. Without the medication, his synthetic spine will cease to function.

“Sir, your medication” Chekov was very concerned, wishing his general would give him the order so he can administer the general his medication.

“It is nothing. Watch the tracker” Rykov ordered as he continues to groan in agonizing pain.

“Where are they?” Chekov asked.

“They are sadistic. Like children hunting insects” Rykov added.

“Motion” Chekov reported.

“Go now,” Rykov dismissed his mercenaries.

“No sir, we will not leave you to die,” Chekov insisted.

Rykov was now piloting the latest Weyland-Yutani MOX power armor. He now towers over his subordinates like a giant. He approaches Chekov,

“Don’t worry Chekov, I have my own battle to fight. Be well. My friend” he dismisses them again.

Chekov sighs heavily, “Yes, general” he obeys as he gathers the remaining Iron Bears to depart from the outpost station. Rykov turns around as he proceeds further into the ancient city looking for his archnemesis.

“I have something that belongs to you” Rykov announces to his longtime enemy. Paya’kan’di taps at his wristcomputer, filtering through the recorded voice clips he had gathered over the decades.

“I WANT ANSWERS,” Paya’kan’di plays back Lt. Rodriguez’s voice, “Come on, Vassili, come on!” He then plays back a younger Rykov voice. The voice clips fill General Vassili Rykov with renewed anger. 

“I’ve met your kind before. You could not kill me. I have seen you without your mask. I am not afraid of you!” Rykov’s voice booms from the MOX’s amplified speakers. “Come, Hunter. Let’s finish this”

Rykov’s MOX was standing on top of a dead xenomorph queen. Paya’kan’di clicks his mandibles, “Lerrtss… Finish… thisrrrr…” he growls in the language of the oomen. He charges towards Rykov’s MOX. Rykov smacks the yautja across the chamber with his MOX’s mechanical arm. He readies his plasma caster, he locks on to the MOX. He repeatedly fires at the large mecha-suit. Rykov dodges the plasma bolts as they collide into the resin walls.

Paya’kan’di grabs his naginata as he bolts towards a large resin pillar. A xenomorph runner leaps on him but Paya’kan’di  grabs the alien by the leg and throws it at the MOX. Rykov blasts the xenomorph apart with the MOX’s railguns. Paya’kan’di quickly climbs up the resin pillar, he spots the MOX. He leaps down from above, Rykov fires his railgun. Paya’kan’di spins around the railgun slug punctures his plasma caster's power supply. He throws his naginata into the MOX’s left mechanical shoulder. Disabling the railgun systems.

Paya’kan’di pulls out his disruptor pistol, he unloads what charge he had left in the pistol into the MOX. Disabling the machine. The power armor falls forwards. Rykov crawls out from his defeated MOX unit. The general crawls to the Prince’s biomask but his body fails him as his synthetic spine shuts down. There Paya’kan’di stood to claim what was rightfully his, he buried his wrist blade into Rykov’s back before pulling the general’s synthetic spine along with his very natural skull along with it. Prince Paya’kan’di roars in triumph as he reclaims his biomask from his prey.

Date: January 7th, 2231. 2:40 AM

Locale: Airbourne.

“I’ve got her signal, Frosty, but it’s weak,” Johnson reported.

“Tomiko?” Harrison called for her.

“About your unit, I’ve done a little research. I’ll feed you the coordinates of a viable entry site. It’s your best bet for finding your team” Tomiko told Harrison as she typed away on the computer console.

“We are heading for the emergency landing bay. Can you get there with your friend?”

“I’m still processing Dr. Betheny Clements’ transfer. Get your team. Then get me” Tomiko replied.

“I’m coming back for you, Tomiko,” Harrison declared.

“You better,” Tomiko added, “You should have a visual in a few minutes”

“You’ve got an escape plan, right?” Harrison asked as the dropship was slowly encroaching the massive alien city.

“Yeah. Down the main lifts, across the canyon floor, through a gate and up an elevator to the auxiliary landing bay. I can get there in ten minutes” Tomiko explained.

“Ten minutes?” Harrison asked.

“Easy,” Tomiko replied.

Harrison felt the dropship land at one of the established Observation Bases within the ancient city. He looks at the UACMC variant of the MOX, called ALICE. He climbs inside the “cockpit” located in the MOX’s chest region. He wraps himself in its harness belts before pulling the armored chestpiece down. The armament makes a locking sound. The interior of the chest comes to life with a HUD display on its interior monitors.

“Once you start down, I’m taking her up to a safe altitude. I’ll be circling above, and come back for you when you make it topside again. Tomiko is going to feed you information as long as the signal holds” Johnson added.

“Understood,” Harrison replied to her. Harrison directs the ALICE off the dropship. The dropship slowly departs from the biomechanical city. Harrison motions the ALICE down into a massive chasm. The suit’s hydraulic legs absorb the shock from the distant height. The ALICE landed on a man made bridge. He turns around and notices the natural cave formation transitions into an artificial structure. The Malanuhm’s tunnel system. 

The ancient tunnel system was smoothed in comparison to the cave outside . Blue glowing lights adorn the tunnel’s ribs. Harrison remembered his high school history teacher speaking of an ancient ship being discovered on a backwater planet. A woman named Ellen Ripley exposed the truth of its existence. However the ICC ignored her warnings, if they hadn’t then maybe the outbreaks on LV-426, BG-386, Rim, Earth, Fiorina 161, Ryushi, among many other worlds. 

Something moved in the distance, Harrison steered himself as he traversed the alien halls. It was just a damaged sentry gun placement. Harrison looked over the edge of the human-made bridge down at the bottom of the malanuhm tunnel floor. The floor was covered in a series of tiny fungal pods. The bodies of weyland yutani security and iron bear mercs were piled on top of each other; consistently they all had the signature chestburster death however where the bursting originated was inconsistent. Harrison could hear what sounded like bugs chirping followed by a series of random clicks.

A man-sized white creature emerged from around the bend. The neomorph wasn’t alone, more followed in its wake. Harrison uses the ALICE’s flamethrower to scare away the sickly pale creatures. They retreated down the suspended walkway. Harrison founded several more bodies of corporate personnel. Cat-sized worms with insectoid wings quickly flutter away as the ALICE unit approaches. The Neomorphs must have been feeding on their remains. Harrison turned his attention to where the creatures had fled. The hall opened into a chamber. Man-made structure of yellow girder beams holding an elevator was built over a deep shaft. The neomorphs watched from the dark corners as Harrison approached the elevator. 

The neomorphs lept from the corners at the ALICE unit. Harrison blasted one out of the air with the ALICE’s railgun gun, it fell dead onto the floor. The flamethrower burned four others unfortunate enough to approach. Harrison tapped at the elevator door control, closing the elevator gate behind himself as it descended to the lower level.

“This is an old survey site. They abandoned it after the POC went down. These ruins are ancient. Tens of thousands of years old. They’re powered by geothermal energy using incredibly sophisticated reactors. We haven’t even begun to understand this technology. We know for sure that the xenos aren’t indigenous to this planet, the Engineers have been breeding them,” Tomiko explained.

The elevator arrived at the bottom, the elevator gate slid open. The elevator was situated in a large chamber. Just beyond the elevator gate, Harrison could see a large mural depicting several images. At the top of the mural was a ringed planet. Below it was a strange humanoid creature that resembled a woman with two pairs of horns: one bending up and the other bending down. Her head was elongated like a deacon but ribbed like a xenomorph warrior. Her arms flared out in an almost crucified way.

Below her was the space jockey wearing its elephantine snorkel apparatus. Below it were biomechanical humanoids fighting the space jockey. Below the war between the two species was several children species gathering around the large snorkel men, below them was the derelict ship with an engineer ordering a bird-headed creature seen carrying a xenomorph egg below it.

“I’ve read the theories from various archeologists. They theorized that the Engineers were part of a greater species known as the Malanuhm. The Malanuhm once ruled the known galaxy for billions of years. But according to some of the archeologists they found evidence of another race of beings more ancient than the Malanuhm, most of the archeologists called them the Starbeasts but some use the Malanuhm name for them; the Stratonuhm,”

“Looks like they didn’t play didn’t nice” Harrison examined the mural. 

“No, they didn’t. According to archeologists they believed the Malanuhm fought Stratonuhm for galactic supremacy,” Tomiko stated matter-of-factly. 

“So where do the xenomorphs fit in all this?” Harrison asked.

“That's the odd part. The Malanuhm didn’t possess biomechanical technology back then; The Stratonuhm did. The archeologists believed the malanuhm acquired biomechanical technology after they overthrew the stratonuhm. However the xenomorphs were not created by the stratonuhm, according to what archeological studies were conducted on planet G-435. The xenomorphs are the stratonuhm. More likely an off-shoot given what we have seen of the modern xenomorph.”

“I don’t think the xenomorphs were their only creation, I killed a few albino xenos earlier and they didn’t bleed acid” Harrison added.

“You are correct. According to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, the malanuhm seeded life on numerous planets and even created humanity. As for the albino xenomorphs, according to various geneticists the Neomorph may represent an earlier evolution of the xenomorph,” Tomiko speculated.

Harrison traversed the biomechanical tunnels, a loud hiss resonated from one of the side tunnels. Followed by a series of crunching noises. Harrison slowly peeked into the adjacent tunnel. He caught a glimpse of a large white creature feeding on a juvenile neomorph. Though the larger creature resembled a neomorph with its teardrop shaped head, the soft pale skin and its lack of visible eyes. However this creature was more akin to a xenomorph. The spikes on its back were arranged in two rows instead of the single row of a neomorph. The beluga xenomorph spun its body around to face Harrison. It dropped the half-eaten remains of the neomorph as it slowly approached Harrison. It peeled back its lips flashing its malformed teeth at Harrison. A sharp hiss called its attention away from Harrison. 

“What the hell was that?” Tomiko asked.

“It looks like the white xenos have a bigger brother” Harrison replied, “My question is why is it hunting the smaller ones?”

“Some animals resort to cannibalism in an environment lacking prey animals” Tomiko speculated, “The creature looked like a neomorph but it was slightly different”

“Different how? Other than being bigger?” Harrison asked.

“If we weren’t pressed for time I would have liked to study it… right” Tomiko remembered the mission.

The ALICE leaves the black tunnels. Harrison entered a large corridor, blue lights alline the ribs of the corridors once more. There he saw a  Weyland-Yutani security guard run past his ALICE unit alongside his combat synthetic companion. A large mutated creature followed after them. Its head resembled that of the beluga xenomorph from earlier except its had eyes, it also walked hunched forward on its front legs with its short back legs tucked under it.

The combat synthetic is smacked across the chamber down into a deep ravine. The creature cornered the guard, its featureless mouth opened as a pair of extendable jaws lunged out from the creature’s face over the guard's head. Its jaws retract, pulling the guard's head off. The creature began approaching Harrison when a swarm of xenomorphs crawled out from the ravine. They were not a sight for sore eyes but their intervention allowed Harrison to retreat into the next tunnels. A flood of xenomorphs came charging at him. Harrison blasted them apart with his ALICE Unit’s guns.

“Should be just ahead now. You’re close… Great now what. Harrison? The signal’s cutting out” Tomiko informed.

A praetorian charged into Harrison’s ALICE unit. This xenomorph was larger than any xenomorphs Harrison had fought up until now, including the predalien. Fortunately he was in the ALICE. Harrison shoves the queen-like xenomorph backwards, he aims the railgun at the xenomorph. Its body is blasted apart with a few consecutive hits to the torso and head. He now arrived at one of the Hive’s entrances. Secreted resin aligned the engineer tunnels. A swarm of xenomorph warriors charged from behind and knocked the ALICE unit down into a deep dark resin tunnel. The ALICE crashes through several layers of resin webs before crashing into a pool of water. The ALICE was now rendered unusable, Harrison had to abandon it.

“You hear that?” asked Jones.

“That’s an exosuit. Frosty, is that you?” asked Morrison.

“Yes, it's me, Duke,” Harrison replied.

“Frosty, watch out, something big is coming your way” warned Jones.

“Good to see you, Frosty. We’re in a bit of a tight spot” reported Morrison.

“They’re still coming!” Jones' voice booms over the mic, “God damn it!”

“Stay focused, marines” McCain ordered, “Pull out”

“Ahhhhh” screamed Blackwell as he got his head crushed by an Ultramorph’s claws. The marines open fire on the massive xenomorph. The others quickly retreated down the tunnel. Shugi attempts to run but the ultramorph’s club-like tail splits open as it grapples a hold of his head. Harrison begins firing on the massive creature as he leaps down into the open chamber, he glances over at the dead malanuhm-major growing out of his seat. The Ultramorph was a queen sized xenomorph drone; it glared at her host’s fossilized remains before turning her attention back to Harrison.

The Imperial Praetorian shedded her praetorian shell as she molts into a Xenomorph Queen. The Queen gains a new awareness in her new form. She felt the Ultramorph growing irritated from playing cat and mouse with its prey. The Queen turned her attention back to the Empress, the Empress hissed to her an order. The Queen roars to her underlings to aid the ultramorph. Harrison gets cornered by the Ultramorph, its club tail splits open into an ovomorph-like fashion. Tiny spindley jointed legs shoot out of the opening like a facehugger. A loud hiss booms overhead, the beluga xenomorph slips out from the small crevice like a squashed boneless chicken before inflating itself back into portion. It leaps on top of the Ultramorph’s back. The beluga xenomorph bites into the Ultramorph’s neck, acidotic blood melts away the white creature’s teeth and mouth. The ultramorph pulls the beluga xenomorph over its shoulder before finishing the albino creature off with its inner jaws. 

Harrison had since retreated up the tunnel leading to the outside port. The tunnel bent and due to its biomechanical nature, it reminded Harrison of crawling out of someone’s throat.  He could see his fellow marines up ahead. Jones, McCain, Morrison, and the others. Johnson flew her dropship overhead as she lowered the bay doors. Tomiko walked out armed with her WY-Sniper Railgun. She welcomed the marines aboard the dropship as she waited for Harrison. Harrison came running out of the mouth-like port. He slid down the slope onto the tongue shaped-platform as he sprinted towards the dropship. The Ultramorph emerged from the porthole. Johnson fires a volley of rockets from her dropship into the Ultramorph, it howled before exploding into shards of biomechanical chitin and acid. Harrison was thrown off balance by the explosion’s shockwave as he fell from the platform. His hands grab a hold of the bay platform for dear life. Tomiko grabs Harrison by the arm and with the assistance of the other marines pulls Harrison’s ass back into the dropship. 

“Frosty is onboard, raise the platform, Johnson!” Morrison shouted excitingly.

“Don’t tell me what to do, Duke!” Johnson growled as she closed the landing bay. The dropship flies over the tongue-shaped peer. Xenomorphs now swarmed all over it. The creatures clattered their teeth threateningly at the dropship. The dropship flew off to its next destination, indifferent to them. The Queen roars furiously as the dropship grows smaller in the distance. “I’m reading power spikes off the scale. Hold on everyone” Johnson warns.

The Forward Observation Pods suddenly explode into a nuclear explosion in the canyons below. The dropship barely makes it back into orbit.

Date: January 8th, 2231.

Weyland-Yutani Debriefing. The Incident. Appendix A - Summary

UACM Emergency Dispatch

McCain reporting

Lv-1201 abandoned. Casualties extreme. One Dropship still missing. Evacuation failed. Recommend scrubbing further evac by the 6th Battalion. Primary Operations Complex has been overrun. Forward Observation Pods appear unsalvageable. Sensors indicate a massive rupture of the fusion reactor cells in the Pods. Likelihood of finding additional survivors: negligible. Requesting medical intercept ASAP.

Weyland-Yutani Debriefing. The Incident. Appendix A -conclusion.

Our satellites at LV-1201 confirm that the hive is alive, nevertheless the Forward Pods are clearly inoperable without considerable investment. Given that need for expedient progress on Research Project X11, we are recommending immediate reallocation resources to Site #3.

The Verloc departs from LV-1201 orbit as it continues on to its next destination. New orders for a new mission.

Remote transmission acquired. Boosting for outgoing dispatch. Routing Now. 

…

…

…

The mule has been acquired. Package is en route.

…

ETA. Unknown.

…

Mission Complete

…

Extraction required. Priority status.

The Verloc’s MU/TH/UR mainframe transmitted.

The Marines aboard the Verloc get ready for hypersleep as the ship’s computers make the preparations to enter hyperspace. Unbeknownst to the marines was the yautja clanship slowly following their ship’s trail.

Date: July 12th, 2231.

Weyland-Yutani Security Alert.

Yesterday morning our top WY biological weapons scientist was abducted from his quarters on Gateway. Thirty minutes later. The wife of our division lead at the New Brazil WD plat reported that her husband had not returned from his dailey golfing. By the end of the day, WY confirmed three abductions and two missing person reports.

By all accounts, this sudden activity is not a coincidence but a highly organized operation. Intel experts match the MO to that of the Iron Bears - However, it is well known that Vassili Rykov, the Iron Bear leader, died during the Incident on LV-1201. Besides, at least one onlooker to the Gateway incident describes the team’s leader as a young, dark haired woman.

As we have yet to receive ransom demands, the motivation for these attacks remains hazy.

Date: January 10th, 2231

Locale: LV-1201, former Forward Observation Pods site.

The Pod’s reactor meltdown blast has scorched the local valley of all life. The irriaradate crater was now left barren. However, something stirred beneath the cooked radioactive soil. First the soil hummed softly before growing louder. The soil began to take a glowing blue hue before exploding upwards. A Disk-shaped device escapes into the air. It releases a blue energy wave across the canyons. The xenomorphs stared up at the device that once was their jailor so many millions of years ago. They watched curiously at the device, it seemed harmless at its distance. A massive U shaped ship manifests above the canyons. Instinctively the xenomorphs retreated back into their hives or took cover in the vast cave network. As for the device it flew towards the center of the juggernaut. The bay doors slowly open to allow the artifact to enter the ship.

                                      THE END

CHAPTER 14: HIVE

“What the hell is the hive?” Harrison asked her.

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Tomiko replied.

“Is that where my team’s headed?” Harrison asked her.

“Looks that way. But why?” Tomiko replied.

“Just get me into the tunnels. I have to warn them” Harrison urged her.

“The tunnels are sealed. There’s no way in from here” Tomiko argued.

“All right. Then get me back to the POC. White Team is there. I bet eight heavily armed Marines and a Dropship can find a way inside” Harrison counter-argued.

They both board the APC as they head back to the Primary Operations Complex. The Alpha Warrior watches the APC from a safe distance before resuming her trek back to the home Hive. A smoke cloud was growing in the distance. The Lander had crashed deep in the mountains.

Back in the pods, General Rykov injects himself with his medication. The synthetic spine of his begins working again at full capacity. He is saddened by the loss of Ivan, saddened and enraged. The lights turn on, Major Dunya enters the private quarters.

“He’s through the net. Out of the pods” Dunya informed the General. She was equally saddened and enraged by the loss of both Ivan and Dimitri; she wanted Harrison’s head.

“Forgive me. It is weak, disgusting” Rykov apologized, “Perhaps this is punishment. So many lives”

“It was my responsibility. I should have taken greater precautions with the egg,” Dunya apologized as well.

“You were only following orders,” Rykov replied.

“Okay… So why here? Seems like a funny place for an Assemblyman’s daughter to take a summer internship” Harrison asked Tomiko while he drives the APC through the access tunnels. He noticed the lack of xenomorphs in the tunnels was certainly refreshing.

“My Brother… He died while he was stationed here. Accidental death, according to the report. Eisenberg signed it himself” Tomiko rested her rifle in a gun holster. While she laid back in the leather seat.

“I’m sorry,” Harrison wanted to turn back to look at her but he had to keep his eyes on the road.

“My brother was a very meticulous man. He didn’t make mistakes” Tomiko replied.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” Harrison countered.

“Maybe so, but he was murdered. I have proof,” Tomiko replied.

“Is that what I am carrying?” Harrison asked.

“Among other things. Kenji’s research centered on genetic modification: human genetics. They used convicts mainly. Pretty sick stuff. It’s this place. It brings out the worst in you. I should have stopped him from ever coming here,” Tomiko continued.

“Sometimes you just can’t hold on tight enough,” Harrison added.

“You okay?” Tomiko asked.

“Huh? Oh, just remembering something” Harrison replied.

Date: January 6th, 2231. 11:10 PM

Locale: Primary Operations Complex

The APC drove past a glowing light stick. The ground and surrounding buildings were covered in black resin. Xenomorphs dwell in the building’s shadows and darkened alleyways. Xenomorphs blending in within the walls and ceilings. The APC doors slide open. Harrison and Tomiko glance at their motion trackers. They got movement. The xenomorphs slowly began encroaching on the APC. The APC onboard A.I began spinning the double cannons and positioning the main turret to its battle station. 

A runner bolts from the rest, three tiny dots are painted on its cranium. A flash briefly illuminates the night sky as a ball of plasma engulfs the runner. Yellow acid blood and copper carapace is sent flying from the smoking crater where it once stood. The APC began opening fire on the encroaching xenomorphs. The xenomorphs reversed their advances on the APC as they fled to a safe distance. The APC ceased fire. Harrison and Tomiko bolted from the UACMC armored vehicle down a manhole. Once they reached the bottom, the sewer was claimed by the hive. Skeletal human remains barely stick out of the resin walls. They traverse the sewer, so far no sign of the xenomorphs. Harrison couldn’t help but think of that ball of light, it reminded him of his arrival here. Two convicts were vaporized by the same ball of light.

They opened yet another sewer hatch, the proceeding room was filled with eggs. Tomiko aimed her sniper railgun at the eggs, she picked them off so Harrison could reach the door. The two bolted up a ladder leading to a platform where they saw the large powered double doors. The door won’t budge due to low power.

“Harrison, looks like we’re going to have to reset the power relay to get this door open,” Tomiko attempts to open the door, “It should be directly under our position” she looks desperately but the resin has covered every inch of wall to point this room was no longer recognizable to her. “Wait, let's look for a stairwell…” A xenomorph sentinel leaps down from the ceiling on top of her. Harrison kicked the sentinel off the platform. Tomiko was helped on her feet by the marine. They both head down a ramp leading to the power unit.

“There it is. Let’s get the power online and get the hell out of here; cover me” Tomiko runs to the power relay. 

She opens the box and begins to pull down the lever. The power hums which awakens more xenomorphs. Red low powered lights flicker on. Harrison finds a smart gun, it once belonged to a marine from Hall’s squad. Harrison took point as he began opening fire on the runners and sentinels that dared get in his way. Once they made it back to the double doors, a drone leapt out of nowhere. It's blown backwards by Tomiko. The drone falls onto its side, its acid blood profusely pours from its wound. 

“Let’s move Harrison!” Tomiko and Harrison bolted to the double doors, they quickly slapped the door terminal to open. The doors slide open. The room was clean, devoid of resin. Once inside they quickly close the doors.

“Harrison. There’s a hall off the second floor that should take us to a security station. If we can get there and we can get the sentry guns back online. That should make things a little easier for us,” Tomiko explained. The two entered a maintenance room. Tomiko made her way to the grate fence area, she pulled out a key to unlock the dial lock. She opened the power box to pull the system charge handle. The door down the hall door terminal flickers on. They proceed down a corridor from the door beyond.

“I think I can override this door for you. Just give me a few seconds” Tomiko bolted ahead of him, she pulled out a small device. She hooks it into the door terminal. “What the hell is that?” she heard a loud roar, “Almost there” she continued to hack into the door’s locked terminal. The two enter the room, Harrison attempts to power up the security systems, Tomiko walks over to the power unit. She pulls down the lever to supply power to the computer systems. The sentry guns were now activated. The guns quickly began thinning the xenomorph’s numbers. The door to the outside slides open.

Harrison and Tomiko bolted down the spiraling staircase until they reached the bottom, then they turned left into a supply depot. “Left” she points. Harrison taps the door terminal, it shocks him. The terminal screen falls off. “Harrison, hurry!” Tomiko cried as her motion tracker began picking up multiple xenomorphs. 

“Give me a second,” Harrison bypasses the damaged door terminal. The door opens, they squeeze down a narrow hall. Another strange roar booms from outside then comes a whistling noise. They spot an elevator lift. The two take the elevator. Xenomorphs could be seen crawling along the walls. Harrison and Tomiko remained silent as the creatures appear to not notice their presence yet. One of the xenomorph warriors turns its gaze towards Harrison and Tomiko before the whistling noise turns its attention back topside.

They waited for the xenomorphs to leave. They could hear faint explosions and the aliens dying screams following them. Harrison and Tomiko make it topside. The cold Lv-1201 winds batters them with a sharp chill. They moved along a curved chain-link fence, then came a bug-like clicking noise.  

In the distance a man-like silhouette fires a ball of plasma at them. Harrison and the agent took cover as it exploded in front of a supply crate.

Harrison and Tomiko leapt from behind cover, ready to engage the creature but they saw nothing but dead xenomorphs. All missing their heads. Harrison directs his companion into one of the buildings, red lights barely illuminating the hallway.

“We’ve gotta get out of there before that thing finds us. The landing bay isn’t far. Should be just up ahead! Hurry!” Tomiko urges. “Up the stairs on the right…” Tomiko directs, she then glances at her motion tracker. A single incoming beep moves at a rapid pace across the LED screen, “Oh God, let’s get out of here, Harrison!”

Both Harrison and Tomiko bolt up the stairway, they could hear heavy footsteps clanking against the metal grate floors. They reach the upper corridor, they pass into a security room. The bodies of security personnel were hanging upside down, their skin stripped from their bodies. A large double window looked out over the streets. “Oh my God,” Tomiko’s eyes widened from the gruesome sight, the security terminal was in shambles too.

“Looks like the console’s fried too,” Harrison added.

“We’re going to have to get to landing bay 3” Tomiko urged. A flash of light flies across from the street. Harrison grabs Tomiko by her arm before throwing themselves to the floor. The large windows explode, throwing shards of glass everywhere. Harrison and Tomiko quickly darted towards the hallway. “We need to go through the landing bay” Tomiko ordered, “Then head for the APC doors below us”

“Harrison, I’m picking up an energy surge just ahead. Be Careful!” Harrison and Tomiko entered through the APC garage from the landing bay. The Heavy Predator watches their movements. He treks across the roofs of the metal and concrete buildings. He spots Harrison and Tomiko leaving the other side of the APC garage. He fires his plasma caster at Harrison but the marine and agent took cover behind the building. The Heavy Predator bolts across the roofs as the two oomens begin to make a run for it. The Heavy Predator leaps over them, crossing the large gap between the two buildings. Harrison and Tomiko reach the end of the valley, the Heavy Predator leaps down from the roof armed with a naginata. A swarm of xenomorphs crawled over the depowered electrical fence as they swarmed the alley. 

The Heavy Predator heard the kainde amedha arriving from the south wall. He quickly switched his biomask vision to the red vision. He spots a praetorian among the kainde amedha, He then bolts past the two oomens to engage the kainde amedha. Allowing them to escape.

Date: January 6th, 2231. 11:25 PM

Locale: LV-1201, Zeta Region, Shelter.

Paya’kan’di woke up from being rendered unconscious. The remains of the Lander were scattered everywhere. He ended up in a shelter of somesorts. He carefully opened a grate door. There was a manhole, he jumped down the hole. He ends up in a pool of water. He slowly climbs out, he is in a dark cave. He heard movement coming from within the cave, so he switched his biomask’s vision mode to electrovision. His vision turns monochromatic red. 

He spotted the kainde amedha gathering freshly captured Venoraptors. They were paralizyed by the kainde amedha’s venom and were being taken out from the cave system. Paya’kan’di decided to follow them. This we lead him to the hive.

He slowly made it across a dark yellow river of acid over a rusty catwalk. The kainde amedha continued to ignore Paya’kan’di as they made their retreat deeper into the mountains. They lead the hunter to a vast network of massive caves. Massive fossils of burrowing whale-like creatures dotted the massive tunnels. He eventually lost the xenomorph's tracks. He spots an oomen made structure; It was an elevator. Paya’kan’di activates the elevator control panel. The cage lift holding the Predator Pince began to ascend to the surface. A damaged Power Loader laid on its side. A Weyland-Yutani lander flies overhead. Its destination was unknown to the Prince.

Date: January 6th, 2231. 11:35 PM

Locale: LV-1201, Zeta Region, Empress Chamber

A massive chamber covered in hardened scretid resin cakes the walls, floors, and ceiling. There the combat synthetics laid their optics on what could be described as a xenomorph queen but she was far larger than any xeno-queen on record with the sole exception of one. The Queen Mother. Fortunately for the combat synthetics, this one was an Empress, a transitory phase between Queen and Queen Mother. The Empress stares down at the combat synthetics from her “throne”, a mass of bone-like structures constructed from resin to hoist the queen above to support her massive egg sack. The synthetics had placed bright cylindrical lights in key corners of the hive. The combat synthetics turn to see a flatbed truck arriving with a MOX power armored suit. Dr. Eisenberg disembarks from the truck with a man in an APE suit as they join the synthetics.

“Advance, soldier. Let us make the situation clear” Eisenberg ordered the APE suit trooper.

“You sure this is safe? The APE suit trooper asked.

“She understands survival. Squad four. Report” Eisenberg ordered.

The combat synthetics in one of the hive’s tunnels continue laying down suppressive fire on the stage IV and V xenomorphs. “Heavy resistance, Doctor. We are ready to seal, however” the combat synthetic reported.

“If I am correct that will not be necessary. The Flame” He orders the APE trooper. 

“Yes, sir” The APE suit trooper begins to spray near the Empress with napalm. The Empress tries her best to avoid getting hit by the napalm. She broadcasts her distress to her children.

“Squad four. Report please,” Eisenberg orders.

“Doctor. We are experiencing something unusual here. The Xenomorphs are pulling back” the combat synthetic reports. The xenomorphs are forced to abandon their mother on her orders.

“You see. Survival” Eisenberg smirks smuggly.

Meanwhile, Major Mccain and his marines arrive at the zeta ruins. The science team has  long been dead; their sternums exploded outward. Jones looked up at the dead scientists. Accompanying him are Duke Morrison, Blackwell, and Shugi. 

“I set those charges right?” Jones asked, “I don’t like this one bit,” 

“It wasn’t an accident, man. Rykov’s leaving us to die” Morrison replied.

“You picked a hell of a time to be right about something,” Jones added.

The newly matured Alpha Warrior returns to the hive with reinforcements. She directed several of her sisters to break from her main pack to flank the androids. Though they couldn’t smell the androids pheromones, they could still detect their movements. The many breeds of Stage IV and Stage V xenomorphs overwhelmed the synthetics through sheer numbers. All that was left between the xenomorphs and the empress was the Combat Synthetics of Squad Four .

The Squad Four synthetics began picking up a surging flood of xenomorphs. “Reports of renewed fighting, sir. Shouldn’t the drones be pulling back now?” asked the APE suit Trooper.

“Something’s wrong,” Dr. Eisenberg was surprised.

“Sir, we’ve gotta get out of here now” the APE suit Trooper suggested.

“Stun her,” Dr. Eisenberg commanded.

 Eisenberg's team begins to cut the Empress down from her resin throne. They destroy her egg sack to prevent her from laying more eggs. She exhales a sharp hiss at the cruel machines. Several power loaders assist keeping the empresses on the flatbed truck as the synthetics strap her down. The truck drives off with the Empress.

The Alpha Warrior arrives at the empress’s chamber too late. She directs her sisters to finish off the straggling weyland-yutani security and APE suit troopers. The Alpha Warrior growled in bitter sorrow for failing her mission. She caught the scent of royal jelly in a chamber nearby. She slipped past the ribbed floor into the lower chamber. Several pools of thick viscous fluid filled the lower chamber like scattered ponds. Sensing the usual royal guards were destroyed by the intruders. The Alpha Warrior threw herself into the royal jelly. She submerged herself in the golden jelly. The jelly triggered a genetic metamorphosis within her, she arose from the jelly sporting a newly formed crown. The royal jelly had accelerated her development into a praetorian. The Praetorian roared as she flung the royal jelly from her developing crown. She hisses to the alpha warriors, alpha sentries, alpha acidspitters and to the predaliens to follow her command.

CHAPTER 13: CHAOS

The Warrior crawls in through the air vent. She slowly sneaks up on Dr. Stiles. He was investigating the source of these unauthorized transmissions. He heard a hiss, he looked up from his monitor at his assistant who was screaming at him before everything went red then faded to black. Stiles collapses to the floor dead. The Warrior retracts her inner jaws back into her mouth. Red human blood dripped from her metallic teeth. She now has to deal with the assistant, she would more than likely alert her kin. A security guard bolts into the room, The Warrior fires her inner jaws into the man’s face killing him on the spot. She stings his comrade before doing the same thing to him. The assistant huddles in a corner, fearing she is next. The warrior stings her, paralyzing her body. She will be useful later.

The Warrior observed the rest of the room, there was a large rectangular table surrounded by eight triangular chairs. She encroached on the open door, the room was messy almost as if someone was trying to barricade it from her and her sisters. She took off towards the stairs leading up.

“Two teams still haven’t reported in” says a security guard.

“If we don’t isolate this bitch quick. I’m gonna give the evacuation order” the higher ranking security guard added.

“I don’t think Eisenberg will go for that,” said the grunt Security Guard.

“I’m not gonna ask him,” the Ranking Guard replied.

The two guards heard a noise but it was all over, the xenomorph moved in so quickly neither of them could get a shot on her. The guards lay on the ground paralized like the assistant. The Warrior catches the scent of more hosts coming from the air vent above, she quickly leaps to the vent. She squeezes herself as she traverses its tunnels.

“First the good news,” said the chief scientist, an elderly scientist among his peers in a large open room. Several scientists are looking at a large screen, a map of the zeta hive. The humans are planning something big. 

“Four hours ago, a Marine rescue team arrived at the Forward Pods. Despite their inadvertent disruption of our security grid. We are now safer than ever. In fact, even as we speak, our six weeks of isolation is coming to an end. The Marines have restored our landline to the Primary Complex and thus a link to their mother ship and the universe at large,” the chief scientists praised the marines for their efforts, who are absent in the chamber, “Now the bad news,”

“As you may have heard, one of our archeological teams has become trapped near the Hive. To extricate the team, the Doctor feels we must neutralize the Hive. That means capturing and controlling the Empress,” the chief scientist finishes. The scientists in the room all began whispering amongst themselves of the implications.

“Yes, I understand your concern, but we have studied this eventuality. Next,” The projection changes to another image of the Hive. “As you know, the majority of the Hive extends above the Empress’s chamber. Our people are trapped near the outer edge. Next,” The projection image changes again.

“The operation begins with a surface assault on the Hive as a diversion. No humans are involved in this initial action. We’ll be relying on a strike team of combat synthetics. Yet, as I have said, this is only a feint. As the Hive responds to the surface attack, two things will occur. First, a Marine team will penetrate the Hive here to rescue our comrades” he pauses, “Second, an extraction team will break through from the tunnel system here, at the base of the Hive”

He stares hard at the other scientists in the room, “Our probes have mapped this area extensively. By tunneling in here, we breach a large horizontal shaft that runs directly into the Empress chamber. This shaft will serve as our roadway for extracting her. We expect the Hive to respond aggressively to the human threats. Particularly that on the Empress. By destroying the tunnels of the Hive, the combat synths will cut off the Empress from any assistance, allowing a quick and bloodless escape back to the tunnels below. Meanwhile, our Marine allies easily and safely extract our comrades. Any questions?” The chief scientist concludes with a question.

“Based on what you’ve described, it would seem our defense would be considerably diminished after the attack. What if the Hive retaliates?” a female scientist asked.

“The sympathetic theory of pheromone relationships as put forward by Dr. Eisenberg is quite clear on this point. The Hive will respond to the command of the Empress and the Empress will respond to her own instinctive drive for survival. Once we have the Empress as hostage, we will be protected from the Hive,” the chief Scientist explains.

“Protected during the extraction or protected long term? Are you saying we would then have safe access to the entire hive and to the engineer technology there?” asked a younger male scientist.

“We believe that we are looking at a long-term insurance policy. For those of you whose projects have been frustrated due to incomplete archeologist or biological data, this would present something of an unprecedented opportunity,” the chief scientists also explains.

“Chin's theory of competitive discourse clearly indicates that the Hive will react violently to the loss of the Empress. At a minimum, the Young Queens will struggle to determine a new ascendant ruler. More likely, the Hive will come after us,” said Dr. Mencus. 

“Who is that? Is that you, Mencus? Well, as you can see, Dr. Chin is not with us to discuss his theory. A rather good indication of its staying power” the chief scientist refuted.

“Where is he, anyway?” asked Dr. Mencus.

“Yes, well. To continue with the briefing, we may expect some injuries during such an ambitious enterprise. I’m asking anyone with medical training to assist with any potential triage. Any other questions?” The chief scientist concludes this discussion.

The Warrior finishes her trek through the vents as she slips out of the floor from an open panel. “Implantation sequence set. Data recording commence on my mark. Mark.” The technician looks out from his perched, glass pane wall into an open chamber below where a Yautja is contained in a cyropod. He catches a glance at the Xenomorph Warrior approaching him. The security guards grab him as they retreat to the elevators. The Warrior hisses but is then distracted by the sound of a vent panel falling. 

She moves back to the glass pane windows, she spots another human sliding off the yautja’s pod. To her, he is just like the rest of them. Food. He resembles the convicts she had hunted when she was just a drone. The convict randomly pressed buttons trying to escape the room. The yaut’ja crypod slowly elevated until the pod was vertical.

Paya’kan’di, slowly awakens from his sleep. He spots the kainde amedha staring down at him menacingly yet curiously. The kainde amedha loses interest in him and the oomen. Paya’kan’di glances over at the oomen, he was passing around, lost, looking for a way out. 

Harrison walks past the cryopod once more, he turns to thoroughly get a look at the creature. He was an ugly bastard, he vaguely resembled the creature that was stalking him earlier. Now Harrison understood where the creature had originated from however he knows next to nothing on what this creature is nor where he came from. He walks over to the PDA, he begins reading it “Date: December 10, 2230.

Surgery to remove forearm device has failed. Hard to explain Medically, the specimen was very strong. Then, as the device was removed, pulmonary arrest occurred. Considerable evidence of tamper-proofing within the machinery, but what kind of society would prefer its soldiers to die instead of being disarmed?”

Harrison growing frustrated notices a space between the pod and the floor, there was an opening. He crawls down into the crawlspace. He was in a small room, surrounded by two panes of glass on both sides, a solid wall behind him and a door in front of him. He opens the door.

“There!” shouted a muffled radio voice, “He is in animal storage! Be Careful, looks like he's armed” Harrison quickly crawled into the vent ducts to escape the guards.

“Containment team report to specimen area 4,” the security guard ordered, “Attention, all personnel. A convict laborer has escaped from Detention Cellblock 4. He has killed several guards and one Marine,” The security guard announces. Harrison cuts through a deadbolt with his blow torch as he traverses through the ducts. “All other convict laborers have been recalled to detention. Any convict caught outside detention will be considered armed and dangerous” The security guard continues to announce.

Paya’kan’di is released from his sleeping coffin prison. He extends his wrist blades as he ascends to the upper level. 

“I can’t raise Morris?” said a security guard.

“He’s dead,” said another security guard.

Paya’kan’di leaps into a whole above the door unit, overhearing the guard’s conversation. He understood a little of the oomen’s language but not a whole lot.

“God damn it! It’s one friggin contaminant for god’s sake!” the guard curses.

“Yeah, and it's headed this way. Let’s check in here” replied the other guard. The two guards pass under the whole in the ceiling. Paya’kan’di leaps down from his hiding spot and proceeds to rip their spines out. He then proceeds through the hallways until he slips into a service tunnel.

“Anything?” a guard asks some ways away from the yautja.

“Not yet,” the other guard replied, waiting for something to happen.

“Just stay alert”, Paya’kan’di leaps down from the service shaft behind the guards. “Don’t worry…” he is silenced by Paya’kan’di’s wristblades.

“I’ve limited all communications with the rescue teams to our secured protocol. The Marines can talk only to those you wish” says Ivan to General Rykov. Unaware of the yautja, staring at them from behind the pane glass.

“They accepted your explanation?” Rykov asked.

“They take orders like good soldiers,” Ivan replied.

“Then it is time. Contact the Verloc. Get a dropship down to the auxiliary landing pad. They’ll need telemetry, but otherwise say as little as possible,” Rykov ordered.

“Understood,” Ivan complied.

Paya’kan’di leaped up to hide from their gaze, he smashed a control unit before rewiring its circuitry to his needs. The door to the alien artifact room is now open. Paya’kan’di finds a disk bomb laying on a small table. He grabs them. The disk bomb resembles a gold fat disk with two prong-like razors sticking out from its sides. He enters the room, where the biomask of the hunting captain is laid on a table along with his netgun. Paya’kan’di picks up the mask, he growls mournfully before attaching the biomask to his power cables. A security guard walks in on him, “ah!” the guard shout. Paya’kan’di spuns around and aims the netgun at the guard who is raising his rifle. A net shoots out first as it pins the guard to the wall. The net begins to cut into his rifle before shattering, now the net cuts into the guards armor, uniform, and then skin. Paya’kan’di turns away leaving the guard to his fate. The yautja leaps onto a ladder before arriving in a massive ventilation tunnel. 

The facehugger containment chamber.

“You’re trembling,” says a female voice.

“I don’t like these things,” says a man’s voice.

Harrison was now approaching a grate, a dial lock is seen grafted to it. Harrison removes it with his blow torch, he then kicks the grate hatch outwards. One of the Guards attempts to shoot at him, Harrison falls off the tall holding unit. The guard shoots one of the units, the cylinder pushes itself open, releasing a facehugger. The facehugger leaps onto the floor, the spider-like xenomorph bolts towards the closest body it could find, the security guard, scurrying up the guard’s leg until he latches itself onto his face.

Harrison climbs up a ladder into the control room, “Fuck, a dead end” harrison curses.

“Soldier, in thirty seconds you’ll be dead” a deep voice spoke through the surveillance camera.

“What?” Harrison asked.

“See that security camera over the door? I’ve rerouted the feed so only I can see you, but if I keep it this way for very long, someone’s bound to notice” the voice continues.

“Who are you?” Harrison asked.

“I need you to get me a package,” the voice orders.

“I’m a Marine, not a delivery boy. Why me?” Harrison asked.

“Because you have half a chance of getting it. I had to ditch it where I knew they wouldn’t look, but I can’t get back there. So you’re going. Once you have my package, we’ll talk about your team,” the voice ordered.

“I don’t negotiate with corporate spies,” Harrison retorts.

“I'm not negotiating. Implantation lab number two. Down the belt, buddy” the voice demanded. Harrison flips the switch to open the belt hatch as he proceeds past the panicked scientists. 

“Hey you don’t want to go in there,” One of the scientists tries to stop him but he aims a gun in his face.

“I need out of here, you should better run, I hear these things are parasitic” Harrison growled. The scientist nods his head as he takes his colleagues out of the room. Harrison crawls on the conveyor belt into the egg chamber.

The Warrior was hiding in the rafters above one of the scientists, “I don’t mind research on the drones, but I think we’re crossing an ethical line with this. Those things are clearly intelligent” the Warrior bursts out of the rafters as she attacks the scientists below, she paralyzes them as she heads to the specimen room next door.

“Secure those samples…” the scientist turns around in horror as The Warrior stings them too. The Warrior spots three tanks containing her sisters. She smashes her head against each of the glass containers, cracking the fragile transparency before shattering. Three more xenomorphs join her side. The guards are quickly overwhelmed allowing The Warrior to continue her trek across the pod. She reaches a room where a chamber lies behind a pane of glass. It was a hive, her sisters were trapped in this small room. The Warrior damaged the human’s computer consoles, freeing her sisters from captivity. The xenomorphs began their assault as they lay claim to Pod 4. The xenomorphs arrive at the egg storage chamber where they free their facehugger young. The xenomorphs were seen building nests in the prison facility. The Predalien resided there.

“Electrical security systems have failed.. Doctor the specimens are escaping” The xenomorphs were crawling over the elevator shafts.

“It doesn’t matter,” said one of the scientists.

“They’ve broken free,” screams a security guard.

“True. Our prison was weak. It is time to build a stronger prison”

The Warrior leads a group of her sisters outside of Pod 2. Once outside she began to feel a chemical change coursing her body, the ridges on her cranium grew more pronounced as she gained some size compared to her sisters; she has now matured into an Alpha Warrior. 

Harrison finally leaves the elaborate egg holding facility. He slowly makes his way to the door. “Check the crew quarters. There’s an emergency panel at the end of the hall. Override it and you can gain access. Beyond this point there is an elevator” the voice instructs.

Harrison snuck past the security guards and slowly made his way to the confiscation room. He briefly hears xenomorph hisses, he seals the door behind him. He spots his uniform, body armor and equipment. He grabs his bypass unit, he quickly changes out of his inmate attire back into his uniform, he puts on his body armor, discards the security guard pistol for his standard issued marine variant and then he grabs his Pulse Rifle. He hears the guards screaming in the adjacent rooms. He slowly made his way down into the lower quarters, he could hear the guards were busy containing the alien threat. Harrison ran a bypass to gain access to Dunya’s room. He takes a security clearance off her bed, before leaving the quarters.

“Now take that elevator down to the implantation lab” the voice commands.

Harrison eventually finds himself in a hall looking down at a familiar chamber. The pod containing the weird man-spider face creature looking thing was gone.

“The disk is on the table. Pick it up” Harrison obeys the voice on his comm unit, “Okay, now meet me near the exit lift. Once we make the trade, I’ll help you find your friends. All right, looks like the elevators are back online. Hurry!”

Harrison makes it to the elevators while continuing to evade the guards, security seems to be appearing less frequently. He takes the elevator to the elevator lift shaft of Pod 2. Harrison could see the chaos spreading through the pods like wildfire, the xenomorphs were loose.

“Damn it, they locked up the elevators. Can you bypass that panel?” the voice commanded. Harrison runs a bypass to the elevator doors. They slide open. There a service hatch appeared instead of a hallway. He opens the service hatch.

“Uh oh. Something’s wrong. You’ve got to get out of there” the voice panicked. Harrison continued through the service tunnels.

“So if I turn those two valves, boom?” the guards' voice echoed into the massive tunnel above them. Paya’kan’di begins listening.

“That’s right,” said another guard.

“I don’t believe you,” replied the first guard.

“It's true. I’m going to make that shit up?” the second guard felt insulted.

“Come on, who would design something that stupid?” the first guard asked.

“It’s a jury-rigged system we salvaged from pod 5. Turn one. Fine. Turn the other? Fine. You turn both? Blammo” the second security guard explains.

“Man,” replied the first guard.

Paya’kan’di  drops down from above, he stabs the second guard in the spine before throwing him across the room. The first guard begins opening fire but Paya’kan’di hides behind a crate before leaping on top of said crate, he jumps on the wall before pouncing on the first guard. He skins them both before tying them up in the rafters. He turns the two handles, a beeping sound now emanates from the two units, Paya’kan’di trots over to a safe distance. The explosion can be felt across all of Pod 2. He enters the next room to find his cloaking generator and spears lying on a long table. The oomen scientists' notes were laying next to them. He rips the paper to shreds as he claims his items. He shoves the cloaking device into his gauntlet. He taps at his wrist computer, he is now a shimmer. He now approaches three guards with stronger confidence. Their screens could be heard for a few meters down the hall.

The powered doors open as a shimmer bolts into a room filled with scientists and the dead bodies of his clanmates. Paya’kan’di glanced at the bodies of his clanmates, they were like his brothers and sisters. Paya’kan’di  mourns with a blood curdling roar, the scientists all turn around their heads darting to find the sound’s origin. Paya’kan’di uncloaks, he deploys his combi-stick, he will take no prisoners. The scientists were all slaughtered, Paya’kan’di removed his dead clanmates from the tables and laid them to the ground. He searches the room for more tech they have stolen from them. He finds his medicomp, his plasma caster, smart disk, speargun and his recharger box, then finds the wrist gauntlets of his comrades. He returns their gauntlets back onto their arms, he pops open their wrist computer to activate their self destruction device.

Two guards walk in on him, he targets them with his biomask, and soon the guards are reduced to swiss cheese from the hot plasma fired from the plasma caster. The Honor of his fallen clanmates must be restored.

The lights flickered as Harrison dropped into a storage room. A voice booms on the intercom,“Medical teams please report. Operation Savior is now at yellow status. All Marine personnel report to major McCain for rescue briefings,” Harrison opens the door, he sees personnel fleeing. “Security breach on Implantation Deck 3. Containment teams to their stations. This is not a drill. Security Omega is now in effect,”

“There’s a maintenance passage behind those consoles. See if you can pry one open” the voice commanded. Harrison obeyed, he pulled one of the consoles open and pulled down a lever in the center of the room. The bl;ast shields are pulled away from the windows. He could see the other pods from here and a long walkway to said pods. He briefly sees xenomorphs crawling over the pods. A xenomorph crawls over the glass window, it begins to smash its head against the glass. Harrison doubled back to the console he opened, it was a hidden passageway. He attempts to pull the door close as the xenomorph smashes its way through the window. The door finally closes shut as the drone leaps at Harrison. The xenomorph hissed angrily at its failure.

“You’ve got to get out of that Pod. Fast!” the voice demanded.

Harrison moved around the cramped room, he realized it wasn’t a hidden passage but a service chamber to the Pod’s defense system. He activates the Sentry Gun with his bypass mechanism. The sounds of gunfire can be heard through the wall. Harrison opens a hidden hatch leading back inside a hallway. A dead guard was laying on the ground full of bullet holes. Harrison bolts to Pod 4 across the caged skyway. He spots a dropship departing. He briefly enters Pod 4 after making a turn he is on his way to the skyway to Pod 3. He climbs up a ladder through a service hatch.

“Head back across the skyway,” the voice ordered.

The xenomorphs hiss at Harrison from across the ravine. They attempt to leap onto the skyway from Pod 2 to Pod 4 but are swept away by the strong winds. Harrison double times it across to Pod 3 but struggles against the winds.

“Be careful. The Wind’s pretty strong out there” the voice reminds him. He tries to enter the skyway service hatch but it wouldn’t budge. The guards began alerting the others from within the skyway. Harrison slowly made his way on a thin ledge around Pod 3. The xenomorphs were slowly making their way to him from Pod 4.

General Rykov was knocking on a door to one of the personnel living quarters as Dr. Eisenberg approached the Merc General. Esieberg tries to hold back his sneer as he power angrily towards the Iron Bear Leader. “Your teams still aren’t in position. I won’t stand for insubordination, General Rykov. Or Perhaps you didn’t understand my orders?” 

“I understood,” Rykov growls.

“The news nets would be very interested in your dossier. Don’t you think?” Eisenberg threatens.

“Blackmail can buy my silence, but not the lives of my men. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to,” Rykov snorts.

“Try not to look down,” the voice warns, Harrison ignores the voice. He finally makes it to a large platform with a service hatch. “There should be a hatch there. It’ll drop you down into a backup lift. You can get to the surface from there” Harrison drops into Pod 3, he treks through a few empty corridors while sneaking past the guards. He finally made it to an elevator. He heard a thud coming from on top.

Paya’kan’di felt the elevator moving. The guards below look up at the approaching elevator. They hear a noise come from atop of the elevator.

“Something’s moving!” the first Mercenary calls out.

“What is that?” The Mercenary caught a glimpse of something moving.

“Hurry up and get this APC refueled and rearmed!” demanded another Mercenary. The yautja leaps out and imaples the mercenaries before firing his plasma caster at the combat synthetic. Paya’kan’di jumps down onto the next platform, he briefly looks up seeing the elevator still coming down. Fearing the oomens will bring more reinforcements and the self-destruct mechanism he had activated could explode at any minute, he had to escape. He fired his plasma caster at fueling tanks near the APC. It explodes taking a huge chunk of the Pod wall and APC along with it. Now it was his chance to escape.

Harrison felt the elevator shake, was that an explosion?

“This is Lander One. What the hell is going in there?” a modified version of an old 2099 model Lander craft flies near the hole now visible from the pod’s exterior.

“Lander One, annihilate the Cargo hold” demanded one of the Iron bear commanders

“Please repeat over" the lander pilot replied.

“Destroy the cargo hold” the Iron Bear commander repeats.

“But sir..” said the lander pilot

“Now!” Demands the Iron Bear Commander.

Paya’kan’di cloaks before bolting towards the massive hole in the wall. Harrison just arrives on the top platform. Harrison hears an all too familiar clicking sound, could they be responsible for the POC? Paya’kan’di leaps onto the Lander.

“What the hell is that!” screams the lander pilot. Paya’kan’di glares at the oomen pilots. “Something is on the roof,” cried a female voice. “Holy shit” said the Lander Pilot. Paya’kan’di smashes through the windshield attempt to grab the pilot.

“Lander One, pull up immediately. Lander One, report over” an older female voice booms across the cargo hold. Three Iron bear Mercenaries spot Harrison making it down the ladder. He slowly grabs a shotgun, the three Iron bears turn around. “Hey, it's that marine, shoot him!”

Harrison ducks behind a large crate, “This is for Dimitri, you sorry son of a bitch!” screams one of the Mercs. Harrison rolls out the way and shoots the Merc dead center with his shotgun. Harrison puts away his shotgun as he begins shooting them with his Pulse Rifle. The two remaining mercs fall over dead. The floor began to open up beneath him. He ran over to the crates, the Merc commander was out fitted with power armor, it resembled the ALICE unit on board the Verloc. “Not good,” Harrison commented.

“Come little marine, come out and face me like a man!” the Iron bear Commander Ivan demanded. Harrison attempts to shoot at him with his Pulse Rifle, hoping a stray bullet would hit him in the cockpit. It was no use, this model was given a few armor upgrades. “Cute, cute, you think your puny weapons have an effect on my Misha!”

“Marine, In one of the crates is a missile launcher. Use it!” the voice demanded.

“Alright, get off my back geeze” Harrison dodges the Misha’s hail of bullets while attempting to locate the crate with the missile launcher. 

“Found it,” He pulls the missile launcher out of the crate. He now has to find a safe place to load the thing.

“Quite hiding, little american soldier! I have a kill quota to uphold. You want to know what they called me? They call me Ivan, the destroyer! I am the second most feared man in the Union of Progressive People!” Ivan boasted.

“Second? Who is the first?” Harrison humored him.

“That would be General Vassili Rykov. Pray that it is me who kills you and not the General!”

“Where does the girl fit into all of this?”

“You speak of Major Dunya? You are no match to her, you are but a fly to our boots”

“Marine. Shoot him!” the voice demanded.

“I found you, american!” Ivan screams with murderous intent.

“Goodnight, Rusky!” Harrison fires a missile straight into the MISHA. The Exo-suit explodes into a great ball of fire. Harrison drops the missile launcher as he proceeds to the elevator lift. Ivan limps to Harrison, he fires his pistol but misses.

“It's not over, yet. Little marine!” Ivan’s blonde hair is soaked with blood, half of his uniform is all torn up, blood and shrapnel coating his body. BANG! Ivan’s head comes apart as bone and brain matter splats on the crates, his body falls to the ground dead. A powered door closes. A figure completely encased in black armor from head to toe approaches Harrison. “Didn’t I tell you to shoot him? Now follow me I’ll help you to find your friends” this mysterious spoke with the same deep voice that has been talking to him this entire time. Harrison and this mysterious sniper take the elevator down.

The elevator lift lowers the two to ground level. Pod 3 began to explode, the ravine shook. The pod was torn from its hinges and began to collapse. Harrison and the mysterious agent both run for cover as the Pod collapses into the ground. A piece of debris flies onto the agent, damaging part of their suit. Harrison quickly ran over to his mysterious ally, he quickly removed the debris. He lends them his shoulder, he lifts the agent up onto their feet. He spots an APC, he quickly hauls them to the APC.

“Hey, Harrison. Slow down. I’ve got a plan” the voice modulator was no longer functioning, revealing the agent’s true gender.

“You’re a girl?” Harrison asked, a little surprised.

“Oh crap,” the agent looked away from him, “Shitty software”

“Well, hello there,” Harrison attempts to reacquaint himself with her.

“Don’t even start with me,” she removes her helmet, revealing short brown hair and dark eyes. She is of japanese-descent. Pretty too.

CHAPTER 11: TUNNELS

Date: January 6th, 2231. 6:55 PM

Locale: Road leading from Primary Operations Complex to the Forward Observation Pods.

Three APCs, two UACMC and one Weyland-Yutani were seen driving down the rocky canyon. Treading carefully so as to not slip and fall into the ravine. Buhlagh and the Chameleons flee from the military transport vehicles. The illusive Venoraptors watched from their mountain burrows. They reach the beginning of a tunnel next work. A blast door gate is built into the mountain. Jones attempts to open the gate but the blast door won’t budge.

“What the hell is going on?” McCain asked.

“No response, sir. The gate won’t open” Jones reports.

“I don’t think - open sesame - is gonna work, sir,” Morrison added.

“How about we use Duke as a battering ram?” Jones was getting really tired of Morrison’s shit.

“Just get that door open. We’re sitting ducks” McCain ordered.

“I’ll go,” Harrison volunteered.

Major McCain chuckled, “You got more balls than brains, son. Exactly what this assignment calls for” he hands Harrison a device, “I rigged up an IR lens for you, but it’ll drain your battery quickly. You’ll only be able to use it for short stretches. Don’t rely on it”

“Like this mission ain’t stupid enough without equipment problems” Morrison complains.

“Deal with it, Duke. Harrison, good luck,” said the Major.

“Looking good Frosty,” Jones compliments.

Harrison takes one last look around, he spots the vaguely dinosaurian venoraptors. They remind him of the acidspitter he encountered in the POC, these must be their host species. They stay clear of the APCs, they seem smarter than the rest of the wildlife. Harrison looked over the edge and saw a dark river flowing in the canyon ravine. He also sees a massive copper tunnel pipe and a rusty stairway leading to its entrance. Harrison moves into the massive pipe, He could see a door at the other end.

Harrison opens the door, “Were in business” he says over the radio. The door splits into four smaller pieces before being retracted into the door frame. The hallway is dark, power must be out but at least the door terminal works.

“All right, I got an update. MU/TH/UR can’t override the access codes as long as the tunnel security system remains online. So we’re gonna have to do this the hard way” McCain explained, “The tunnels are divided into sections by containment areas - short tunne;s gated on either end, similar to an airlock. With the security system active, only one gate in a section can be opened at a time. MU/TH/UR thinks a single marine on foot could allow..”

Harrison climbs up a ladder leading into another hallway. He opens the door, he is now in a large tunnel, he could see the guard post up ahead. “I’m in the first control station, sir” Harrison then pulls down the lever. The front gate pulls open. The APCs began to drive into the first section of the tunnel. Harrison spotted the dead body of one of the tunnel personnel.

“Harrison, I’m gonna need you to find the primary control terminal and shut it down. It should be just past tunnel section four” McCain ordered.

Harrison begins to leave the control station, “Harrison, you’re going to have to seal us in and then open the gate from the other side. Once we’re through, we’ll provide fire support,” McCain ordered, “all right, you should be right near the next control station”

Harrison spots a PDA, he picks it up and reads it, “Transportation handling Procedure 1011-C

Live specimens are not allowed within the tunnel network without secure, electrified containment systems.

Larval specimens must be transported with a class-4 stasis field. Convict Laborers must be accompanied by passive electronic restraints,” Harrison continues into one of the rusty doors. He is in the second control station, he sees the door terminal is busted, so no going back. 

The sounds of doors and gates closing and opening travels through the tunnels. The Warrior slowly awakens from her slumber. She looks over at the alpha in her pack. The alpha hisses for a fragment of her pack to investigate.

He pulls the lever to the control unit. The lever is stuck. The panel’s circuit board is exposed. Harrison runs a bypass on it. The doors behind the APC are sealed shut. “Good Job, Harrison” said Jones.

Something left a dent in the door, Harrison looked over, he heard xenomorphs hissing. Soon a lone warrior breaks through the door. Harrison unloads an entire clip into the warrior, it falls backwards..stunned. “Harrison, get that door open!” McCain ordered, Harrison quickly pulled down the lever before bolting out of the control station. The warrior slowly rises to her feet. Harrison quickly hides in an air vent to escape. The warrior passes by the vent as it patrols the hallway, the warrior soon leaves the vicinity. Harrison makes his way down the hall, Harrison sees the body of a dead inmate along the way. The APCs traverse into section 2, “We’re in section 2. Watch your back. It’s gonna get hot” McCain warns.

“Hey, Major, we got a contingency plan?” Morrison asked.

“You wanna take over for him, Duke?” Jones asked.

“I didn’t say nothing,” Morrison replied.

Harrison spots a hatch on the floor with dead bolts holding the hatch closed. He could see the three APCs from atop of the elevated platform. He moved across the platform to the next chamber but the door was locked. He moves down the stairs to station 3. He finds a note outside of station 3, the note said the tunnel access system was to be closed for maintenance, he glances back to the platform hoping the warrior wouldn’t find him. He taps the door console. It slid open as he gained access to station 3. There was a destroyed air vent and another dead inmate on the floor.

“All right, Harrison, open containment area two. Once we’re through, you’re on your own until you activate the gate on the other side,” Major McCain ordered. Harrison pulls down the lever, allowing the APCs to enter section 3. The sound of gunfire booms across the tunnels. A warrior that was stalking him was destroyed by the APC’s rear cannon. Harrison makes his way up to the platform, he runs across it to the door. He taps at the console, it finally opens. He spots a PDA on the floor, 

“To: Internal Security Protocol Chief

From: Dr. Eisenberg

Although I understand the need to discourage espionage, I think the latest measures go beyond prudent safeguards. By tying the security layer into the node protocol, you do prevent any unauthorized transmissions in the system. However, the data layer is by definition an open layer and vulnerable to attack.

The collapse of this could result in cascade failure of the entire node tree - we’re talking a cold reboot. Fifteen minutes down time. Given the hostility of this world, I would hate to be without protection for one minute, let alone fifteen,”

He puts the PDA down, he finds a blow torch in the hands of a dead maintenance engineer. He walks over to the hatch as he begins to cut through the hatch’s bolts to gain access to the contents inside. It's a maintenance tunnel. There is something down here. He traverses the maintenance tunnel. He briefly spots a xenomorph drone but fortunately it moves down the opposite tunnel. He slips into the adjacent where he spots a ladder. He eventually makes it back into the underground road system. 

“You’re gonna have to find another way in,” McCain suggests.

He briefly spots xenomorphs resting in the tunnels. He quickly makes it up to another leader into the air ducts where he crawls into gate station 4. Harrison pulls down the lever allowing the APC into section 4. The xenomorphs in the tunnels are immediately destroyed by the APCs. Harrison bolts to rejoin his comrades.

“Carter, Mulder, Quaid - You’re up. Head for section 4,” Major McCain ordered. Harrison joins up with them, all four of them enter the last gate station. Xenomorphs bolt around the corner, the marines fire on the runners and sentinels. An acid spitter vomits on Mulder, his armor melts then his flesh: skin, muscles, bones and all. Harrison guns down the acid spitter avenging Mulder’s death. Quaid is grabbed by a warrior and pulled into an air duct. Harrison and Carter are all that is left.

“Maher, Stone, rendezvous with Harrison,” McCain orders. Stone was lying dead outside the final gate station. Maher gets pulled underneath the console into a small air duct.

“Shit!” Harrison cursed. Harrison turns around to see the gate station control terminal was heavily damaged, the lever wouldn’t budge. He looks over and sees a ladder leading down into another service tunnel.

“Damn it, this station is trashed” Harrison jerked the unmoving lever.

“Luis, try to get it online,” McCain ordered. Luis arrives with a box of tools.

“It’s no use. We’ve got to get to the security control station” Luis reported.

“Looks like there’s a service tunnel that should take you to the main terminal,” McCain orders Harrison.

Harrison gestures to Carter and Luis to follow him. They take the ladder to the service tunnel.

“Head right,” Luis directed Harrison. Harrison heads right then opens a door, it splits into fours as it slides into the door frame. 

“That’s it you’re almost there. Okay, now straight up” Harrison takes the ladder back up. In the final section, a power loader was seen in the corner of the room. The Warrior reveals herself to Harrison. Carter gets startled and begins shooting at her, she bolts away as Cartner knicks the explosion barrels near the other last gate station. The Warrior flees inside an air duct.

“All right, marine. Now shut down that security console,” McCain orders.

Harrison pulls down the last lever, it wouldn’t budge. Luis gestures his head to the computer consoles behind him, “Console might be locked, Harrison, try one of those over there.” 

Harrison ran over to the security console and saw an extended console. Displaying LOCKED in bold red letters. He removed a panel off the device, exposing its circuit board, and ran a bypass. The Status changed from LOCKED to UNLOCK in green bold letters. The three marines returned back to the APCs.

“What’s going on, Major?” Jones asked.

“MU/TH/UR says the Weyland-Yutani schematics lacked pertinent data,” McCain explained.

“Which means?” asked Morrison.

“Put it this way, if there are survivors at the Pods, their situation just got a whole lot worse,” McCain explained.

Date: January 6th, 2231. 9:40 PM

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, ground level.

The Warrior along with her sisters abandon the access tunnels as they flood into the gorge leading to the Forward Observation Pods. The lead warrior arrives at the perimeter fence like she has for so many years. She stays away from the electrical fences, she senses the flow of electricity radiating from the fences, knowing their danger from experience. 

An engineer technician is fixing the power grid while an Iron Bear Merc stands guard, it is Dimitri, Dunya’s boyfriend and comrade in arms.

“We should hurry,” Dimitri warns the technician.

“I’m working as fast as I can, dimitri. If you don’t like being out here, why did you volunteer?” she, the engineer technician asked.

“It’s dangerous for you to be alone,” Dimitri replied.

“And I'm supposed to be safe with you? Does Dunya know you’re out here?” the technician asked curiously.

“You are losing focus on your work,” Dimitri comments

“Uh, huh. Listen, this is all double redundancy. We have two layers of hardware between zero current and us. Barring a total software meltdown, we’re as safe here as we are inside,” the Technician explained.

“What makes you think we are safe inside?” Dimitri asked.

“There, good for another thousand years,” declared the technician.

The power suddenly shuts off, the emergency low power light flickers on the sentry cannon. The electrical flow was no longer radiating to the xenomorphs. They grew curious. The xenomorphs hesitantly brushed themselves on the electrical fence. No pain..Nothing. The lead warrior leads most of her kin to the fences, while The Warrior leads her sisters on the suspension cage directly to the Pods themselves.

“What did you do?” Dimitri asked accusingly.

“That wasn’t me,” the technician replied with a hint of fear in her voice.

“Get inside! Now!” Dunya cried over the radio.

The xenomorphs no longer afraid of the fence, they began to climb over the fence. Every stage IV and stage V xenomorph caste documented on LV-1201 were now in the perimeter: Runners, Drones, Acid spitters, Sentinels, Warriors, and even a few Predaliens.

“Oh God,” screams the technician as Dimitri provides cover fire for her.

“Keep moving! Don’t look back,” Dimitri orders as two xenomorph warriors were gaining on them.

Eisenberg was standing on the elevator lift with a combat synthetic, he observed the chaos unfolding before his eyes. Several Iron Bears are killed and the technicians captured by the xenomorphs. On the radio, he hears the teams of scientists suddenly drop from contact. He looks towards his combat synthetic companion, “We should get inside” Eisenberg suggested.

“We are closer to ground shelter 1. I recommend that we proceed there immediately,” replied the combat synthetic.

“I’m not going underground,” Dr. Eisenberg felt insulted, also bad memories of being in dark claustrophobic conditions reminded him of the incident twelve years ago. 

Date: January 6th, 2231. 9:55 PM

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, ground level.

The three APCs make it out of the access tunnels to the ground level of the FOP. The massive suspended towers hang menacingly above the ground. The marines spotted survivors at its base, white body bags were laid near the elevator lift.

“Looks like the Pods are intact. I’m seeing survivors at the base,” McCain observed. The elevator lift descends down to the ground floor, a welcoming party? The APCs park near the elevator lift. Dr. Eisenberg, Rykov and his men approach the APC convoy.

“Gentlemen, welcome to the Forward Observation Pods,” Dr. Eisenberg’s welcome was a cold one, with a hint of sarcasm in his monotone voice.

“You took down our defense grid,” Rykov accused the marines.

“Your corporation decided we didn’t need the complete details of your security protocols,” McCain retorts.

“We made alterations. You can never be too safe,” Dr. Eisenberg added.

“Apparently you can. Regardless, my men are ready to deploy immediately, if necessary,” Major McCain replied.

“You are too late. We have repaired what can be repaired. Six of my men died today,” Rykov growled at the marines.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” McCain offers his condolences, then he asks, “But the situation is contained?”

“We’re still assessing the situation. The Pods are intact, but we have teams in the field for biological and archeological research,” Dr. Eisernberg added.

“Even after what happened to the POC?” McCain asked curiously.

“This facility is self-contained. With security running properly, we’re perfectly safe. Besides, we’ve wired the tunnels with charges. We can seal them remotely in case of contamination,” Dr. Eisenberg sounded confident.

“Three teams still haven’t reported. You may have killed more than we know,” Rykov said grimmly.

“We’ll do whatever we can to get them out,” McCain replied.

“We should move inside,” Eisenberg suggested.

“I would like to re-establish our communication link with the POC,” MCCain added.

“I’m afraid the landline was severed when the facility was overrun,” Eisenberg replied.

“We’ve set up a booster transmitter in the tunnels. With your permission, my marines can modify your software to utilize our transmitter,” McCain suggested.

“Of course,” Dr. Eisenberg complied.

“If you could lend us a terminal, Harrison here can perform work,” McCain added.

“Technician Stiles. Please take this gentleman to the control deck. Assist him in any way necessary,” Dr. Eisenberg ordered.

“Yes, doctor,” Stiles gestures to Harrison to come with him. Harrison is the only marine lifted into the Pods, the rest of his squad stayed outside on the ground, off to rescue the trapped scientists.

“Isolate the Marines’ communication channels. We don’t want them asking embarrassing questions of Pod personnel,” General Rkov asks his trusted lieutenant Ivan Hushvatov, then he asks Ivan for something else, “You’ve prepared the rosters?”

“Yes, General,” Ivan replied.

“Will it hold up to investigation?” Rykov asked.

“Without bodies, who can prove where they died, in the tunnels as we’ll claim or six weeks ago in the POC?” Ivan added.

“We do what we must. Go then,” Rykov ordered.

Date: January 6th, 2231. 10:05 PM

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, Pod 3, Stile’s office.

Harrison, now onboard one of the pods, Technician Stiles points towards the door on Harrison’s right, “Down that corridor on your right. Bear left at the function. It’s at the end of hall,” Harrison walks over to the door on the right. He passes through a couple of rooms and hallways before reaching his destination. He reaches the communications room, it's dark inside filled with several computing terminals and monitors arranged in the shape of a U. Harrison immediately sits down trying to establish contact with the POC.

System Access Console 672

“Access transmission protocols,” Harrison ordered the mainframe.

Access denied. General transmission protocols require Alpha 1 clearance.

“Access landline transmission protocols” Harrison ordered the mainframe, hoping it would accept his command.

Access granted.

“Reset primary transport route to V.290 booster protocol,” Harrison ordered.

Resetting… Override access authorized. Incoming message.

Rosters have been altered. Scientists already dead. Your team is in …

Fatal data fault. Terminal Failure. Shutting Down.

“What the hell? I’m having trouble accessing the transmission protocols,” Harrison reports to the Siles via intercom, as he grows frustrated. The door slides open as a shapely Iron Bear Mercenary walks with a feminine gait. It is Major Dunya, Harrison spins around in his chair to face the female Merc.

“Hey. You startled me,” Harrison examines the mercenary: Harrison thinks she looks very attractive, but the look in her eyes was as cold as a glacier. She had that Russian vibe to her, she carried herself proper and strict. 

“I believe we have a problem in the transmission line. You’ll need to interface with the root system. Please follow me,” Dunya gestures to Harrison to follow her. A series of cat walks stretch out to the adjacent pod in an enclosed shaft. They make it across one of the cat walks between the pods.

“It would take a cunning man to disable our security system,” Dunya began talking again. Harrison walks out from behind as he attempts to cut her off from the door. 

“Yeah, well, that was MU/TH/UR, not me. I was just following orders” Harrison sets her straight.

Dunya smiles, “I like brave men”

Harrison smiles too, taking it as a compliment, “Really?”

“Men like my fiance, Dimitri” Dunya brings up sharply.

“Your fiance? Man, my luck never changes,” Harrison sighs.

“Don’t worry. He is gone. He was outside the Pods when the system went down. A casualty,” Dunya explained.

“Oh,” Harrison pauses, “I’m sorry to hear that,” offers his condolences.

Dunya is contacted by her superiors over her comm unit, “yes. Of course, I understand. I will be there soon” Dunya then looks up over at Harrison, she gestures to him to proceed to the next pod’s door. Harrison feels a sharp pain in the back of his head before blacking out. Dunya glared down at Andrew Harrison with a look that could kill a xenomorph.

CHAPTER 12: PODS

Date: January 6th, 2231. 10:10 PM

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, Pod 4, level 12, ventilation.

The Warrior had been hiding in the ventilation unit for a good 15 minutes before making her move. She could sense her sisters outside had retreated, cut off from their link; she must be careful when traversing the human’s nest. 

“Warning, Xenomorph contaminants confirmed. Please remain in your quarters with doors locked until further notice. All deck officers have been issued Pulse Rifles. Report any problems immediately,” the security technicians sound the alarm, while announcing the situation in the pods.

The Warrior crawls and sneaks beneath the weyland-yutani security guards. She quickly arose from under the floor space, she stings him with her venom before dragging him under the floor. She headbites him, planning on using his body to start a nest; She must find more hosts. She leaves the crawl space once more, she is hit in the shoulder by a pulse rifle round, her blood splats on the floor melting a hole through it. She leapt on the wall, rapidly crawling towards the guard. He fires at her, she leapt to the other wall before pouncing on the guard, tearing out his innards for injuring her. She ends his misery with a headbite. The other guard came out from the hallway firing his weapon. The Warrior bolts as she squeezes beneath the floor panels. The guard stares in disbelief at the carnage she had wrought on poor Anderson. He was a dick though and probably deserved it, a negative thought crossed the guard’s mind. The floor panel started sizzling, a clawed hand burst from the floor, the guard stumbled as the alien surfaced from the floor like an armoured black shark, she pulled him closer to her as she dragged the guard into the crawlspace below.

Another guard fires upon The Warrior, she slices open the injured guard’s throat with her armored forearm blade that grows out from her wrist into her elbow, before sinking into the floor. The guard was too late, Anderson and Weadon were already dead. He carefully examines the damaged floor grates. He could see something moving underneath, he is then impaled through the foot. The sharp stinger worms its way out, the tail’s segmented vertebrate damage more surrounding tissue comprising his foot. The tail stabs the guard in the heart. The guard slumps over dying. The paralyzing venom spread throughout his body quickly. The Warrior Xenomorph dragged him underneath the floor. She spots a scientist covering underneath a death, she drops to all fours as she pulls the scientists from his hiding spot.

She extends her inner jaws ready to eat his brains. But she senses a mental link, two mental links. Her sisters. But they were dominant in the fluid filled cylindrical tank. She moves the scientist towards the tank containing a facehugger. She remembers inheriting the memories of this creature, almost like a past life. She plunges her claws into the glass tank, the fluid poured around her black armored forearm. The facehugger landed in the palm of her claws, she carefully removed her sister from the tank. The facehugger twitches to life, it senses a warm body, the facehugger leaps on to the scientist's face; sealing his fate.

Next was her other sister's tank. She was thankfully in her stage III form, a drone. The Warrior smashes her skull into the tank, a crack forms on the glass. She batters her thick skull against the class once more, fluid begins leaking out. The drone within the tank, quickly awakens to finish freeing herself on her own. The Warrior hisses euphorically, she was no longer alone again. She lifts the scientist onto her shoulder as they both flee outside of the cramped room before escaping into the rafters. The rest the body on its side before fleeing down the rafts to the other compartments of the pods.

“Major McCain. My condolences on the loss of Corporal Harrison. We try to control our convict laborers through the use of technology, but as you know, technology fail” Dr. Eisenberg reports.

“Have you caught the son of a bitch yet?” Mccain could barely contain his anger.

“It’s only a matter of time. We’ve identified the last known position of the missing team. I’m afraid the rescue is not without risk” Dr. Eisenberg comments.

“Where's Wheadon, Anderson, and Abrams?” asked a guard.

The Warrior and her companion fell upon the guards like hawks to mice. The Warrior chased one of the guards into one of the labs. She leapt into the guard, cracking the glass tank behind him. The glass shatters releasing the Runner trapped inside.

“Medical teams please report. Operation Saviors is now at yellow status. All marine personnel report to Major McCain for rescue briefings,” the announcer said over the intercom.

The Warrior destroys a computer unit inside a private room, it releases a Predalien from her stasis. She immediately began feeding on the scientists in the room.

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, Pod 4, Prison Quarters.

Harrison slowly awakens on a stiff bunk bed. He feels pain throbbing in the back of his head. He notices he was no longer in his colonial marine uniform. All of his equipment was taken from him. He was dressed in inmate attire. An inmate, possibly his bunkmate, was staring at him the whole time, the name tage says RIESER on it, “It's been a while since we’ve seen… new blood around here”

Harrison sits up, looking around confused, “What? Where am I?” Harrison asked him. He rubs the back of his head, it's still throbbing in pain. A security guard passes back and forth from a large window overlooking the inmates.

“You just come out of cold sleep? What are you in for?” The inmate asked.

“Huh?”

“What crime were you convicted of?” Rieser was losing his patience.

Harrison arose from his bunk, “I’m not a convict. I’m a Marine”

“Pssh, sure you are. And I’m innocent,” Rieser replied sarcastically. He then chuckles. 

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Harrison looks around the prison cell.

“Attention security. Please escort convict #16 to prep Room B” a lady’s voice booms over the intercom.

“That’s you. Boy, you must’ve really pissed somebody off. Out of the freezer and into the frying pan, It’s too bad we didn’t have more time to get acquainted,” Reiser commented, he chuckles again.

“Yeah, I’m heartbroken too,” Harrison snarked.

Dunya walks into the room overlooking the inmates, she casts a death glare at Harrison. “No sedative for this one,” she ordered the guard.

“Yeah. Okay. Want me to let you know when it's done?” The guard answers back nervously, the Iron Bear Mercs in general scare the shit of him; Major Dunya and General Rykov especially. 

“No need. I will be in the observation room,” she smiles like a venomous snake at Harrison before leaving.

“The guard’s alone. Idiots. They’re getting sloppy lately,” Rieser chuckles.

“Must have their minds on other things,” Harrison replied.

“Hmm, their mistake” Rieser begins to walk backwards, he slowly pulls out a shiv he made. The guard approaches Harrison, now seeing his chance Rieser lunges at the Guard with his shiv. The guard whips out his gun, he squeezed out a lucky shot. Reiser smiled, blood trickled down his forehead. He collapses to the floor as a corpse. The shiv slides over to Harrison, he quickly grabs it, his body moves on its own, years of combat training allowed to overpower the guard. He plunges the shiv into the guard’s neck. Harrison briefly spots an inmate cowering under his bunk, his tame tag says Jonas Richter.

He reaches the guard post, he shoots the next guard before leaving the guard post. He is now in a poorly lit chamber with gas canisters and a single service ladder.

“Containment team report to cell Block C” a voice commands the other guards. Harrison quickly hides in the service shaft. He reaches the elevator shaft, where an elevator containing two guards were sent looking for him.

“Pair off and search by twos. I want this guy found fast” said the head guard. Harrison sneaks under a small space underneath an elevator car floor. The service airlock shuts close. 

“Like we don’t have enough problems already. We still have a bug running around somewhere on level 12,” one of the guards sighed.

“God damn marines,” replied the other guard. After some time the elevator comes to a complete stop. Harrison slips into another service tunnel. He hears something scurrying in the adjacent room. He opens the service tunnel airlock. A janitor has just gotten facehugged by a facehugger. Harrison knew that the janitor was doomed and that there were xenomorphs onboard the pods.

 Harrison attempts to open the door but it was locked, there was a hatch but it had an old school dial lock on it. He was holding something in his hand, it was a welding torch. Harrison carefully removed the torch from the man’s grip. He looks up at the hatch, he closes his eyes as he melts the lock off the service hatch. He crawls into another duct.

“Do you have the results on the test group yet?” asked a scientist.

“Cybernetic rejection is down four percent” says a female scientist.

“Slow and steady wins the race, right? At least it’s improvement. That’s human ingenuity for you,” says the male scientist.

Harrison moves along the ducts to overhear another conversation, “Yes, coming along nicely. Testing pheromone sample four one five. Sample collected during specimen foray number forty. Introducing pheromone now,” the scientist was working on a new variant of xenoborg. Harrison had heard about rumors of failed weyland-yutani xenomorph projects of the 2180’s but to see the corporation making a second attempt, confirmed the old rumors.

“Specimen reacts with increased hostility and aggression, Reducing pheromone now”

Harrison was now out of the ducts. He was in a dark room, QUARANTINED AREA - DO NOT ENTER was in big bold red letters. Harrison used the blow torch to remove the deadbolts from the grate below the sign. The place was torn to pieces, Harrison knew it was the xenomorph’s handy work. The remains of the guards Anderson, Whedon, and Abrams were stuffed down in the damaged floor; their remains were being converted into ovomorphs. Acid burns and holes were everywhere. The xenomorphs could be anywhere, nowhere safe in this pod. The upper deck was too quiet.

Harrison climbed down the ladder into the lower levels, he heard crunching noise around the corner. A massive alien was huddled in the corner. It resembled a xenomorph but it was light green in color. She bit off big chunks of the guard with her mandibles, she slowly turned around, her segmented dreads flop over her shoulders. Harrison was horrified, what manner of creature birthed this thing? Harrison hid in one of the adjacent rooms as the Predalien began searching for more food. She swishes her tail along the white plated walls. Harrison hides under a bed, the predalien slowly walks into the living quarters; it was big, almost too big to fit in the room. It walks around the room growing closer to Harrison. Despite its gruesome appearance, the thing was just an ordinary xenomorph. She quickly lost interest when she couldn’t find him. Harrison waited for the creature to leave. Slowly we crawled out from beneath the bed. He needed a pulse rifle, even at close range a pistol is next to useless against a xenomorph. It would take an entire clip focused on one area to penetrate the  armor of a xenomorph warrior, even then you would have to shoot it point blank which is lethal to the gunman since that is acid blood effective range.

Harrison forced himself off the floor, he carefully walked over to the door. He swung the guard’s pistol down the hallway then spun around down the other. He briefly sees it entering another corridor before the automated door closes behind it. Harrison needs to find his gear quickly. He slowly treks down the right hallway where he finds a service grate with a bolt on it. He carefully uses the blow torch to melt the bolt off before slipping down the crawl space. He slips into the service tunnel, while closing the airlock behind him. He moves through the service shaft until he slips into the maintenance duct. Large pipes containing natural gas and steam align the duct.

“Attention all personnel, please be advised that Pod Two has been placed on Red Alert status. Xenomorph containment confirmed” the announcer’s voice boomed across Pod 2.

Dr. Eisenberg was sitting alone in his room, between this, Rykov’s yautja obsession, the colonial marines, the convicts revolting and the mysterious transmission being sent out from the Pods. Eisenberg was overloaded with stress, damn them he cursed in his head.

“Command, this is Dr. Eisenberg. What is the situation with the contaminants?” Eisenberged asked.

“We’re still tracking one creature, but we think it’s isolated in the maintenance system,” a female technician reported.

“You think it’s isolated?” Dr. Eisenberg growled.

“Shall I send security? General Rykov has a team nearby” a male technician asked.

“No of course, not…” Dr. Eisenberg was starting to have one of his panic episodes. He struggles to contain it but his body begins acting on its own accord, the shaking fits and the hallucinations. He began seeing xenomorphs manifest like ghosts in his room. The sounds of them breaking into his quarters, before an alpha warrior manifests on his desk. She extends her inner jaws at him. Eisenberg screams as the alpha lunges at him.

General Rykov, Dunya and Ivan escort the general into a room with a long rectangular table surrounded by eight triangular chairs. They finally reach Eisenberg’s office. Rykov knocks on the door, he hears a loud commotion originating from the office. Rykov bangs on the door harder.

Dr. Eisenberg had barricaded his office. A desk was blocking one of the entrances. Office chairs blocking the vents. A server unit was blocking the main entrance. Dr. Eisenberg was lying on the floor curled up in a ball shaking, near a fallen lamp, near his large U shaped desk.

The memories from all of those years ago came flooding back to him, back when he was completely human. Observation Post 3, 

“We got a survivor,” said Sgt. Steve Logan, The electronic door slides open, and several United American Colonial Marines enter the room. They spot Eisenberg lying on the floor, huddled in the fetal position.  “My God” he looked around the room to see the carnage, the bodies of the science team were all over the place. “What the hell DID this?” Logan cursed.

“Logan, what’s going on there? Did you locate the team?” asked his commanding officer.

“What’s left of it. One survivor… uh, looks like the others were…eaten,” Logan radioed to his superiors.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Eisenberg growled remorsefully. 

A loud bang echoed through the observation post, “Hey what the hell is that?” asked one of the marines. An all too familiar form of death stalked around the corner. “We got multiple contacts, quick get the survivor out of here” Logan ordered. The M41A pulse rifles scream as they spray in the general direction of the creatures.

The server unit was forcefully pushed away from the main door. General Rykov, Ivan and Dunya stomped into the room furious. General Rykov approached Dr. Eisenberg while the others stand back. Rykov glares down at the pathetic state Eisenberg was currently in, “What is wrong with you?” Rykov snarled, “Get up!”He orders. Eisenberg refuses, “Get up coward” he demands, Eisenberg still doesn’t comply and like a father to his disobedient child, Rykov grabs Eisenberg by the arm and pulls him to his feet. 

Eisenberg recomposed himself, “Are the teams in position? Is the marine rescue prepared?” he asked.

“Yes, the teams are ready… are you?” Rykov questioned Eisenberg’s current mental state.

“We have work to do,” Eisenberg spoke with renewed vigor. Remembering why he came back here to this place, it wasn’t to harvest the xenomorphs. It was to control them! He will make them pay for the suffering they caused him. He will not fail like Dr. Sora Matsuhita, Dr. Micheal Bishop, Dr. H.G. Groves, Dr. Waidslaw Orona, General Thomas Spears, Dr. Ernst Kleist, Dr. Paul Church, Dr. Samuel Kadinsky nor Dr. Lee Chaolan. He is no failure, he will make history, Dr. Arnaud Eisenberg will be the first in history to successfully and truly tame xenomorph XX121. He briefly thought of the old Weyland Corp’s Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, Dr. Charlie Holloway, Dr. Martin Holloway and Dr. Jocelyn Watts; without these four brave scientists the Company would have never been inspired to become something greater.

The Engineer's technology is the key to his plans.

CHAPTER 10: RESCUE

Locale: Lv-1201

Date: January 6, 2231. 5:10 AM

The tientsin-class UAS Verloc exited hyperspace. It slowly approaches the dark green planet LV-1201. The interior of the Verloc resembled the old conestoga interior. Colonial Marines equipping their gear and maintaining the other equipment onboard the ship.

A marine in his 30’s with dark hair, looked at his comrade annoyed. “Hurry up, Frosty. We ain’t got all day” Duke Morrison asked impatiently.

The marine in question was a late 20-something year old, he had a burly frame, rusty brown hair and a perpetual frown. “Don’t you have work to do?” Andrew “Frosty” Harrison asked while carrying the massive load with his P-5000 Powerloader. 

“Everybody‘s waiting on you. Heck, I even prepped your gear for ya. Wasn’t that nice of me?” Duke doesn’t even hide his patronizing tone.

“Thanks, Duke,” Harrison replied sarcastically. “I’ll remember whose ass to pull out of the fire first when everything goes to hell” The power loader drops the large container down.

An attractive biracial woman walks up from behind Duke, “Duke we have an operation to run here. Quit flirting and get back to work” she ordered.

She looks over and sees an elderly marine dressed in green. Commander McCain arrives, “Commander on the deck!” she shouts to get her fellow marine’s attention.

The marines all began to line up in formation. “Gather round and listen up” Commander McCain orders. “Six weeks ago, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation lost contact with a research facility on LV-1201. We’re here to find out why. Duke, what are we looking at?”

“A suicide mission. Hell, we’re still short eight soldiers and our synthetic after that last drop. Half our equipment’s out of commission, damn UPP bastards”

“There’s time pressure involved, and we won the distance lottery. Skip the commentary and tell us what we’re dealing with,” McCain grew annoyed.

“The basic layout is two heavily fortified installations: Primary Operations Complex and Forward Observation Pods. The sites are connected by a secured tunnel network” Duke explained.

“Johnson, flight path” McCain ordered,

An Irish redhead woman with short hair, she was formerly part of the Three World Empire’s Royal Marines before transfering to the United America Colonial Marines “Not much to work with, sir” she spoke with an irish accent.

“I vote for an air strike, sir,” Duke suggested.

“Negative. The higher ups want the site intact survivors or not. We’re cleared for light and medium munitions, but no heavy stuff. That means no air strikes and no Alice. Sorry, Harrison,” McCain explained.

“We’re supposed to evac survivors?” Jones asked curiously.

“Our orders are to put out fires, then dig in and wait for the 6th” McCain explains,

“Assuming we last that long,” Duke added.

“Beta Section will remain here until the ground position is secure” McCain finishes.

“All right, boys. Let’s roll” replies Hall.

Locale: LV-1201, Enroute to Primary Operations Complex

Date: January 6, 2231 5:25 AM

Two UD-24 heavy dropships break through LV-1201’s thick green clouds. “Reading 1500 meters to the landing beacon,” Johnson reports. The two dropships pass over the landing beacon nav point. “Hold on, boys. Where’s the damn facility? We should be right on top of it,” Johnson navigated her dropship in closer. Inside the dropship, contained an APC, with it a red light fills the cramped space as Harrison, Morrison, Blackwell, Jones and Shugi. “What the?” Johnson cried as she regained visuals, a massive spire rock formation suddenly appeared outside of her window. “Hang on!” she shouted. The underside of the dropship scrapes against the rock spire, causing the APC to shake back and forth. One of the dropship’s turbine engines catches fire as plumes of smoke follow it. The dropship folds in its wings moving towards a clearing, the dropship deploys its landing gears as it lands in the clearing. The landing ramp lowers allowing the APC to disembark from the transatmospheric spacecraft. Ichiro landed his dropship somewhere nearby, the second APC arrives at Johnson's dropship and APC.

“Johnson? Where the hell did you learn to fly?” McCain was mad.

“Flight school. The same place that taught me not to fly blind in hurricane wind,” Johnson retorted, feeling insulted.

“What’ll it take to get airborne?” McCain setted aside his feelings, he wanted his dropships in tip top shape.

“A landing beacon and wind shear data for a start. Plus, the ship’s a little beat up. Stabilizer’s jammed. I can fix it, but it’ll take me an hour or so. The antenna’s fried, though” Johnson explains.

“So much for calling down reinforcements,” Jones snarked.

“Once we control the Complex, we’ll control an entire subspace array. Hall, Red team, get the power online. White team, locate security control. Blackwell, you take Shugi and Harrison and make for the landing bay.

We need that wind shear radar up and the landing site clear and powered. Once you’ve done that, activate the beacon” McCain commands.

“You heard the man. Move it” Hall ordered.

“Harrison and Morrison, follow me” Sergeant Blackwell ordered. The three marines move across the clearing, disabled trucks and cars are seen littering the place. The marines quickly take cover behind several large crates as they near the facility’s doors. 

“Harrison, run a bypass,” Blackwell orders Harrison. 

Harrison carefully slides down the keypad interface as he gains access to the circuit board. He pulls out his bypass tool to rewire the circuitry to allow them entry into the facility.

“I got movement,” Morrison said as the doors slid open.

“Harrison, scout ahead. We’ll cover you” Blackwell ordered.

“Yes, sir” Harrison moves on ahead, then Blackwell and Morrison follow suit. The facility halls were trapezoid shaped. Red emergency lights poorly  illuminate the darkness. Harrison shined his flashlight across the room. He opened the door leading to the next corridor.

Xavier is startled by the door’s suddenly open, he briefly sees the marines behind the slowly sliding electronic door but glances over and sees a shimmer lunged at him. Xavier is impaled on something long and sharp. It throws him to the floor dead. The marines stare at the convict’s dead body unaware of who he was or the role he played leading up to this event. 

“Shit man, what killed him?” Duke asked.

“I don’t know… and I don’t want to find out,” Blackwell replied.

“I’ll take point,” Harrison said.

Harrison takes point as he approaches the open door ahead. The door shuts close. He activates the door terminal. The door opens again.

A black boot fell from the ceiling, piles of flesh were lying discarded in a corner. “Oh, no way. Someone tell me that’s just a boot. That better be aboot…” Duke hides behind Blackwell. “Hey, it's a boot” he sighs in relief after kicking it.

Harrison shines his light over at the other end of the room. Three skinned bodies were strung upside down. 

Harrison spots a PDA, “Diller, The lockbox code was AX72BY before the POC was overrun. Thank blaney for the codes (bg) then get the guns and get back here. We’ve made it this far, so whatever’s tripping the sensors isn’t all-powerful. Just another set of walls, man. We’re nearly out. A few more days it’s rescue time. Got it? 

-Xavier” Harrison finishes reading.

“Blackwell, just after you entered the facility. The door entrance suddenly collapsed. We were going to fall back to the LZ. Your team needs to head for the POC and get the power online or we’re in trouble” McCain ordered.

“Understood, sir” Blackwell complies, “Alright Morrison and Harrison, let’s go”

“Sir there is a service hatch here, it leads to a garage” Harrison reported.

“Good, let’s go,” Blackwell nods.

The marines now in the garage below, unknowingly escaped from a tridot laser. Harrison opens the garage tunnel door. He and the others moved into a clearing. Gilgore and Samson spot the marines, he bolts towards them desperate to be rescued. The last few days they witnessed their friends getting slaughtered by the xenomorphs, Xavier abandoning them and now some invisible killer is stalking them. They both run across the bridge waving their arms, screaming “Hey!” three red dots appear on Kilgore’s forehead. A blue energy ball blasts Kilgore into a red mist, Samson in shock turns around before he too is reduced to red mist.

“Shit!” Morrison cusses.

“We need to push forward,” Blackwell commands. The three marines trek across the bridge, three red dots dance across the bridge trying to gain a lock on the marines. The three red dots disappear. Then reappear, a blue ball of energy flies down from the sky as it destroys the bridge behind them. 

The body of a convict is cast down from a rock spire. Followed by the growl of what sounded like a very angry animal.

“Major McCain, we’ve reached the southeast entrance. Doesn’t look like anybody’s home… Security systems are offline” radeod Hall.

“We’re picking up some scattered energy sources… probably emergency backups” said Jones, “Still no response on the emergency channel, sir”

“Keep trying. Hall, proceed to the power core” McCain orders.

“All right, we’re airborne,” Ichiro radioed.

Blackwell’s team spots the outer wall of the Primary Operations Complex, when they get closer they spot two more hanging skinned bodies. Harrison attempts to open the door but the console is broken. Harrison runs another bypass to get White team to enter the POC, East Landing Bay.

“Major, we’re at power core,” Halls reported.

“How’s it look?” McCain asked.

“Okay. Ichiro is restarting the system” Hall reported.

“Looks like the whole system was shut off, so once the maind grid is online, we’ll still have to reset the local relays to get the lights back on in each sector” Ichiro explains.

“When you’re finished there, find a landing bay and get the systems online so we can land this bird” McCain orders.

Blackwell spots the system charge, “Morrison, go pull the system charge” he orders. Duke hesitates, “Harrison” Blkackwell turns to Andrew Harrison,  Harrison pulls the lever instead. The auxiliary power roars to life. The ceiling collapses as a long elongated silvery pipe comes down, it startles Duke believing it was something else.

“Major, looks like the generator has been reset in the east landing bay,” Ichiro reported.

“That’s gotta be white team,” Jones speculated.

“Frosty, get that landing beacon online” Johnson ordered Harrison by his callsign. White team arrives in the landing bay again. They enter the communications building and discover the comms room’s door was torn to shreds. The alarm systems were destroyed. The elevator was still functional. The elevator door slides open. White team boards the elevator going up. They are now in a small office room. The PDA in the desk reads ”Auditor’s report - Appended notes

I had a heated conversation with doctor Eisenberg today. He’s an arrogant one. His family is powerful - the founders of modern synthetics hold great sway on the Weyland-Yutani Corporation board, Still, he’s overestimating  his protection. His father’s foray into medical applications leaves the investors cold. Dubious profit and dubious technology. 

Yes, he’s had successes imprinting neural patterns onto synthetic adaptive networks, but costs are insane - a handful might afford such operations. And there are rumors of facility loss - emotional alterations and instability. Of coarse, given that his subjects are generally terminal beforehand, who’s to say its the procedure”

Morrison reads one of the computer monitors while Harrison taps at the Landing Beacon Control console. The blast doors slide down revealing the glass windows and the outside. 

“There’s the beacon. All right, hold onto something” Johnson demanded. Her dropship passes overhead before circling around to land at the landing bay. White team randevu with the Dropship 8’s crew.

“Good work, Marines. Harrison and Morrison, find the nearest security office and restore the defense grid for the bay” McCain ordered, “Shugi, Blackwell, this Dropship is our lifeline. Don’t let anything get near it. Am I understood?” Major McCain ordered.

“Yes, sir,” the marines replied.

“Okay, let's go Duke” Harrison takes point.

“Great,” Morrison follows.

The two marines enter one of the gatehouses, it houses a Weyland-Yutani APC. Harrison led Morrison up a flight of stairs into the adjacent corridor. They could see Level 1 in big bold letters with the 1 larger than the lettering.  The adjacent door was partially open. Harrison taps the door console, it opens completely. 

“Hey, Frosty, I think there is something behind those supply crates” Morrison runs over to the supply crates with his motion tracker, the floor caves into the sublevel. Harrison follows to check on Morrison.

“Junction of corridor 1-C and 1-D. All clear” Hall reports as she navigates the POC from her end.

“Entry clear. Signs of gunfire, though. Damage from explosives. Probably frag grenades. I’m not seeing bodies” Ichiro added.

Harrison and Morrison leap from frogs around the corridor until they enter another room filled with computers. 

“Corridor IF. Clear. Proceeding towards the core. Hey slow down there, Ichiro” Hall reported.

Harrison spots a massive hole in the floor. Duke’s eyes widen at the burns around the hole, Harrison crouches to confirm what they both are thinking. Harrison looks at Morrison, “Hey, Frosty, are you thinking of what I'm thinking?” Morrison asked.

“This is not good,” Harrison lowers himself down the hole. He carefully placed his feet on a filing cabinet bearing the Weyland Yutani logo. There appears to be another whole below the filing cabinet.

“Hey, what are you doing, Frosty?” asked Morrison.

“I think I see something… Nothing, just some scattered clothes and some ammo. It appears to be the security crew quarters” Harrison described. Morrison lowers himself down into the room. “Watch your step, there is another hole, beneath the cabinet”

Morrison slips and falls into the second hole, “Gakk!” He lands on his side, Morrison stands up, he angrily looks at Harrison. “Damn it, Frosty, you jinxed me” Harrison jumps down the hole, joining his friend.

“I told you to watch your step, didn’t I?” Harrison chuckles.

“Yeah, whatever,” Morrison huffs as he walks over to the door to open it. The two marines enter a corridor with two colored long pipes, one red and one blue, displaying the word steam on them. Hot steam fills the opposite end of the corridor, the marines trek past the steam.

“Heads up, team. This area’s seen definite heat” reports Hall, she spots the acid damage, she now knows what enemy they are going to face.

Harrison and Morrison reach the power nexus station. Morrison stands guard of the exit while Harrison marches over to the nexus control terminal. It was out of power, Harrison glanced over at the power unit on the wall. He walked over to the unit, he pressed a button for the unit to semi-eject its circuit board. “Running a bypass, Duke, so don’t get startled” Electricity starts flowing into the POC once again. Lights begin to turn on in the Primary Operations Complex, the Computers reboot themselves to restore the other central systems, sub systems, and auxiliary systems.

The xenomorphs are awakened by the humming of electrical activity. The hosts have returned. Several of the runners had molted into their warrior equivalent sentinels. The few acid spitters that were born, their hosts came from one of the planet’s more rarer wildlife, remained asleep.

“I got movement,” Jones announced over the radio.

Harrison and Morrison motion trackers begin to pick up several bleeps. They hear a banging sound from one of the maintenance hatches near a grate. The hatch bulges up. Morrison and Harrison took cover behind the server units.

“Hold your position, team! Give me a direction,” Hall commanded.

“All around, ma’am. Something woke up,” Jones reported. They begin opening fire on the xenos.

“What's that sound?” Morrison asked, a sentinel leaps into view. Harrison and Morrison open fire on the rusty brown alien. The sentinel collapses on to the floor dead after being riddled by pulse rifle rounds.

“Pull back, now!” Hall ordered as the xenomorphs began to swarm them.

Another sentinel darts from the server units into view, the pulse rifles rip it apart too. Harrison and Morrison quickly jettison their spent ammo clips for a new one, the bastard isn’t dead yet. They continue to fire on the xeno until it lies motionless. Harrison quickly peaked behind the corner to see the maintenance hatch was intact despite being dented upwards. The torn open grate near the hatch was where the xenos came from. Harrison and Morrison squeezed themselves into the ventilation.

“They’re everywhere. Form up. Forget the drop zone. Watch our six. The Ceiling! The Ceiling!” Hall commanded the Red Team. They continue to lay suppressing fire on the xenos until the xenomorphs in the ceilings burst through; they fall awkwardly out of the ceiling like drunks out of a bunk bed.

“Red Team, hull back to our position. Feeding new telemetry now” McCain ordered.

“Roger, sir. Watch out Jones!” Hall shoots at one of the warriors. It falls back but not dead.

“Harrison, Morrison, get back here. We’re pulling out,” Blackwell ordered.

“Roger, sir,” Harrison replied. Morrison watched the rear, making sure no xenomorphs tried to take them from behind. A sentinel leaps across from one wall to the other before getting blasted by Morrison. He ejects his clip and slaps in a new one. “Please don’t be anymore” he mutters to himself.

“Falling back in good order, sir. It’s really hot” Hall added.

“Prep for lift off. Harrison, Morrison, you’ve got two minutes, tops. Move!” Blackwell ordered.

“Roger, sir,” Harrison replied. Two runners break through the rear, Morrison deals with both of them. A single sentinel tries to corner Harrison but it's dealt with. Harrisona nd Morrison climb a ladder out of the ventilation ducts. He spotted a dead guard alone by a light. A sentinel was waiting for them, Harrison unloads his last clip into it. It falls from the ceiling dead. Harrison walks over to the dead security guard and picks up his dog tags, 

WEYLAND-YUTANI SECURITY

JOSS BLANEY

LEVEL 4

Harrison pocketed, he looked towards Morrison. Morrison looked away as they prepared to leave this room. A sentinel leaps onto Morrison. Morrison kicks the sentinel in the jaw, briefly stunning it as he crawls away. Harrison grabs one of Blaney's pulse rifle clips and uses it to kill the attacking sentinel.

“Man that was close” Morrison shouted.

““I told you I’d pull your ass out of the fire, Duke””

The two pass a sleeping acid spitter, huddled behind the lockers. The two marines opened the door, the door creaked loudly. The acid spitter awakens from the radio chatter, “Major, Hall here. We need assistance. We’re pinned down in Yard Four”

“Understood. Fall back to the LZ. We’ll meet in the open” McCain orders.

“Meet where? Pinned down. …copy?” Hall continues to fire on the enemy.

Harrison and Morrions climb up a flight of stares unaware of the acid spitter slowly following them. They traverse from Level 4 to Level 1. Two sentinels rush the marines out of the corridor back into the stairway. Morrison unloads his last remaining clips into the sentinels. The acid spitter vomits up a bolt of acid towards the marines but misses, the acid melts the wall a bit. Harrison fires a grenade down the stairwell, the acid spitter explodes. “Let’s go!” Harrison says to Morrison. They bold into the Level 1 corridor. No more signs of xenomorphs, they must have gone to Sergeant Hall’s team. Harrison and Morrison have reached the gatehouse. They could see the APC.

“Harrison, Morrison, we’re dusting off. Rendezvous with Hall’s team” ordered Blackwell. The two walked up to the Weyland-Yutani owned APC.

“I always wanted to drive one of these,” Harrison commented. After resupplying themselves with ammo, Harrison takes to the driver seat while Morrison buckles up. The APC began to drive out of the gatehouse. The APC rolls down a narrow street, a cat-walk looms over it. Three marines bolt towards the APC.

“Where the hell did y’all come from?” Ichiro asked.

“Where’s Hall?” Harrison asked.

“She’s gone, Frosty, and Decker’s badly burned,” Jones replied.

“They were everywhere,” Decker added.

“My motion tracker can read life signs, right?” Harrison asked.

“Sure,” Jones replied.

“Listen, we’ve dealt with these things before. These creatures are parasites. They need hosts. They’ll want her alive” Harrison reminded them.

“Hall’s toast. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Morrison added.

“He’s right, Frosty. She’s gone, man” Jones agreed.

“I’m not leaving without her. They’re taking her for incubation. That’s their weakness,” Harrison reminded them again.

“Not much of a weakness” Jones retorts.

“I’ll take what I can get,” Harrison replied.

“I’ll be monitoring you from the APC. Morrison, Ichiro, you're with Harrison. If we can save the sergeant, he’ll need extra man power. I’ll keep an eye on Decker”

“This is a bad idea Harrison,” Morrison complained.

“If we're quick enough, we can save her before they…implant her” Harrison replied.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Ichiro commented.

The three marines make their way down an alley. They navigate past the massive gray buildings and the series of cat-walks hang over the marine’s heads. The cold wind blowing around makes the trek uncomfortable.

“You're heading toward the main personnel quarters” Jones radioed.

There were no xenomorphs in sight. But something was watching them. The air shimmers in the distance. The marines spot what was left of the animal storage. Dead personnel were glued to a makeshift nest. The ovomorphs have long since hatched. Facehuggers lie lifelessly belly up. The streets were empty of activity, the air carried a heavy silence outside of the electric humming. The marines pass through a gatehouse as they traverse to the next district. The road sloped between the two large buildings bending around the quarter, the alley was blocked by a thick wall of secreted resin.

Harrison and the two other marines activate their flashlights to illuminate the black alien wall, there was a passage big enough for a man to walk through.

“What is that?” Morrison comments.

“Its hive resin,” Harrison stated.

“A good reason to turn around. Come on, Harrison, give it up man” Morrison cried.

“I am not leaving her,” Harrison proceeds into the Hive along with Ichiro.

“Fuck it!” Morrison follows in after them.

Harrison and his team spots a woman glued to the hive wall, it was one of the technicians. It was too late, she had already birthed a chestburster days ago. 

“Frosty, this is crazy,” Morrison complains. They traverse deeper into the personnel quarters, spotting two more dead personnel glued to the wall. They trek across the resin corridors, it was more of the same dead personnel glued to the walls. The marines couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. They passed through to a computer room before reaching the elevator. Harrison activates the elevator, it takes him to the lower levels. The xenomorphs in the upper levels slowly leave their hiding spots as they traverse into the lower hive.

“Are you sure you want to go down here?” Morrison questioned. Harrison ignored his friend Duke. Ichiro remained silent. They have reached the lower hive. It seemed empty, devoid of activity. They spot two ovomorphs.

“We're getting interference,” Jones radioed.

“Don’t get too close to those things,” Ichiro warned Harrison.

“Watch your step, man,” Morrison warned Ichiro after stepping on his foot.

The marines carefully avoid the xenomorph’s eggs. They aim their weapons at them in case they decide to hatch. Harrison spots Sergeant hall, she was glued to the wall like the others but she had a facehugger on her face.

“Harrison, they got her! I knew this was a bad idea, man!” Morrison started freaking out.

“Damn it, Duke! Just help me cut her down from here, we can probably get her to the autodoc back on the Verloc” Harrison ordered.

“What if one of those things burst out of her?” Morrison feared.

“Don’t be ridiculous, the facehugger is still on her,” Harrison pointed at the large spider-like xenomorph on the sergeant’s face. They remove the resin as they pull her body free. Harrison throws Hall over his shoulder as he directs his marines to head back. As they head back into the elevator, the ovomorphs stir with activity. Two Xenomorph Warriors bolt towards the elevator. The elevator door quickly shuts as it lifts the four marines to the upper levels. The marines double time it out of the hive.

“Frosty, Duke, Ken. get outta there” Blackwell ordered.

They were nearing the hive exit, where xenomorph runners and sentinels uncoiled themselves from their resin nests. The marines fire open the weaker xenomorphs, they explode into showers of acid. The marines squeeze themselves out of the passage back to the outside.

“Let’s haul ass, marines” Harrison shouts to Ichiro and Morrison. The marines double timed it up the sloping road until they reached the gatehouse. Ichiro quickly tapped the door console to shut the gates. The runners and sentinels collide into the powered gate door.

They entered the next district.

“There's still coming,” Morrison cried.

“Stay focus, Duke,” Harrison shouted.

Morrison and Ichiro open fire on the xenomorphs chasing them from the rear. The runners and sentinels' numbers were dwindling, the marines were halfway to the APCs, then came the drones and warriors. The APC swerved into the next street, the twin cannons made short work of the human-spawned xenomorphs.

“Come on, get in!” Jones hollered.

Sergeant Hall's body was taken aboard one of the dropships. Ichiro flew one of the refueled dropships back to the Verloc, where she could be placed in cryo hibernation. The cryopod should prolong the gestation period by a month. The marines hoped they could get her to a medical facility in time to extract the xenomorph that is growing inside of her.

Welp time for us to lower our expectations even lower from what I found out on reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LV426/comments/t18g56/new_alien_series_character_details/

"

Alien the Series - Characters

Wendy - one of the main characters in the series. She is what is considered a hybrid, a metahuman who has the brain and consciousness of a child but the body of an adult. Because she was essentially created in a lab, she will eventually yield her almost superhuman powers. 

Boy Kavalier - a very young man who is the CEO of a company called The Prodigy Corporation. This company is at the heart of the series, with their experiments and creations becoming a new wave into metahuman territory.

JD Hermit - a soldier for the company’s security arm. He is essentially an orphan who lost his family at a young age. One of his losses was his sister Marcy who he believes died at the age of 10.

Kirsh - synth who acts as a mentor and trainer for Wendy. Slightly older and more highly developed, the character will train Wendy but might have other intentions.

Atom Ein - Boy Kavalier’s advisor. He is older but understands manipulation and the way to help achieve larger goals.

Anything here sound remotely "Alien"?"

Humans are boring, every story like ever is about the human journey. I really like ALIEN and ALIENS, they are my favorite alien movies but I would like if an ALIEN movie or rather an AVP movie (the previous AVP movies were massive heaps of disappointment, although I liked aspects of Requiem) focus on a Yautja or Engineer protagonist instead of a human one.

Xenotaris: It's not automatically wrong, but I'm interested in the human journey and what situations like the one in Alien tells us about being human. Androids might be interesting to some, but that's not why I watch Alien-movies. Leave the androids to spin-offs in the Alien franchise, they could have bigger roles there but not in the official material.

Maybe I'm wrong but the AVP’s were alternate things, right? If so they're not canon, and it's a bad head-line.

About ADF and his version of how the Xeno came to be. In the AVP-podcast number 51 they interviewed ADF, and he got the question about that. 45 minutes into the interview he gets the question in which he answers that the script wasn't clear about who made it, so he could make his own interpretation. According to ADF, David used material that was left by the Engineers and made his version. Maybe the Engineers made the Xeno or David made a more advanced version, which according to ADF could explain why the monster grows so fast in AC. This could be interpreted in different ways about who was responsible for the monster.

I prefer the Foster version, rather than Scott wanting David to be the one who made it. Even though I haven't read it, it seems to be better than the movie, judging from the way ADF described it.

"You have to take the novelisations with a pinch of salt. I'm pretty sure I read in one of the ADF novels that xenomorphs are telepathic!"

I haven't read that yet, might be in Alien 3 Novelization but might skip Alien 3 and jump to Earth Hive and mentaly changed Billie and Wilks back into Newt and Hicks or figure out how to edit my copy on kindle

AvP was _never_ "canon" in the official alien universe. It is a separate continuity. It cannot therefore be "erased" from alien canon.

You have to take the novelisations with a pinch of salt. I'm pretty sure I read in one of the ADF novels that xenomorphs are telepathic!

I don't really mind David being the creator, although I more for the engineers being the sole creator

I'm currently working on a campaign that draws heavily on the dark horse comics and video games, which shares the same universe as my fanfiction the AVPU

I haven't got to the Alien Covenant novelization yet so I didn't know the details. I am still on the ALIENS novelization

I have talked to TWO people i know about the TV Show and they seem Bummed Out about HOW we wont have any Connection to RIPLEY in it.....  One of them also thinking it should be a Opportunity to introduce the PREDATORS as the Creators of the Xenomorph.

This would just be another AVPR with some Fluff/Scenes like in AVP...... with also something like the "The Predator" Alternative Endings..... No Thank You!

Regarding the TV Show...

I think this will just go and DESTROY the Plot of David in the Prequels i think it would CAUSE so Many Conflicts.... i think that UNLESS the TV Show is a Alternative Take then it could have a Profound Effect on the Franchise.  And i WORRY this will be in a NEGATIVE way.

Regarding the ARC.... I think it makes Sense when looking at the Themes of the Prequels.....  HOWEVER.... they could have had David go and Create something ELSE that looks Different but YET similar and Proclaim he has PERFECTED the Engineers Creation etc.

For Example any of the ABOVE would have been more a Connection to the Xenomorph and via seeing HOW he Created them, then it could give us some IDEA of HOW the Xenomorph came about but also leave it UNEXPLORED so it has that Mystery about it still.

Such a Alternative Creation would TELL the David Story Arc, but it would NOT go and Effect the Xenomorph and any Conflicts about HOW OLD it seemed the Derelict was etc.

It seems that up UNTIL the Spring-Summer of 2015 that THIS is Exactly what they was going for... but then they Decided we NEED to SHOW the Original Xenomorph and its Origins and so they DID THIS... but added that David is the Creator!

THIS.... could have been FIXED via a Movie or a Novel or a Comic that would NOT even have to have David in it at all......

You have the Engineers Return and Discover Davids Workshop, and Xenomorph and they SEE the Potential and then you SHOW/INDICATE that they then take it to LV-223 to EVOLVE it to WHAT we have in ALIEN.

Then ANY kind of Movie/Novel or Comic that would FOLLOW where David is going would then NOT have to be about the Xenomorph or SHOE-HORN the Plot into ALIEN.

What we have then is this...

*Without the Engineers Pathogen and Knowledge David gained from what they was doing on LV-223, then David would NOT have the Material to Create his PROTOMORPH

*The Engineers then UPGRADE/EVOLVE his Protomorph to become the XENOMORPH.

So David in Effect becomes the MIDDLE-MAN this is a Compromise.  We STILL would have the TIME-FRAME Problem..... which is that there are NO EGGS on the Derelict by the Year 2105..... but there is a Solution to that ;) which also TAKES OUT the Engineers LV-223 Moon at the same Time.

"What are your thoughts on the ALIEN RPG?"

It seems Interesting, however i have NOT read it, and i have not really looked in Depth into it.  Maybe ONE DAY i may Purchase it for Source Material to Read what FLUFF etc they have.  But i doubt i will ever PLAY the game.

It seems that in 2018 then Andrew Gaska and Paul Elliot went about to Produce the Concept behind the RPG Game, by coming up with some Background to the ALIEN Franchise, to FLESH OUT a lot of things..... it seems the Source Material for their Ideas that they Created has been USED for Comics/Novels from 2019 to a Degree.

And so their WORK may be used as a Reference Point from NOW ON.. but this does-not mean that any TV Show or Movies will FOLLOW what they have Explored/Explained to the BOOK/LETTER.

And so Producers/Directors of such Project have FREEDOM to go and Change anything they want..... although the Executives at Disney or WHO they assign to WATCH OVER any Projects will have the Greatest Input/Say.  So IF they agree with what Gaska and Elliot have ADDED then thats what will go into a Project but if the Director/Producer has a IDEA that something is Explored in a Different at to Gaska and Elliots Ideas and the Executive for Disney prefers what the Producer/Director wants to do then thats WHAT we would get.

David Giler and Walter Hill used to have a LARGE Roll/Say in the ALIEN Franchise, but they seemed to ALSO have their OWN Idea on HOW to Expand and Go Forwards with the Franchise that looks to be DIFFERENT to what Ridley Scott had seen as the WAY to go.

Regarding ADF.....

Yes he had worked the Novel off a Script, but it seems the Additions about HOW it was that David Explained he had NOTHING to do with the EGG and he FOUND it as it was, and it was HIGHLY AGGRESSIVE so he had to DESTROY IT.  These seem to be additional STUFF that he added.

The last 2 Drafts (inc Shooting) have NOT been released but i would BET that the additions that ADF made are NOT in those Scripts too.  Prior to the Release and After we have Ridley Scott indicating then CONFIRM that the Xenomorphs Creation was STARTED by David.

I think the KEY thing to look at is to look at the Drafts, you will see Alien Covenant has made some Changes but for the MOST PART the Movie is the Drafts..... and when we look at the Drafts it is NOT indicated at all that the Engineers have KEPT/STORED anything related to LV-223/Xeno-Virus and Horrors on Planet 4.  The same goes with the Movie (there is Davids Lab but thats his OWN WORK).

So we have to Consider the Following........

IF the Egg was already in that Room and Highly Aggressive then....

*Would the Engineers be so STUPID to KEEP such a Danger within that VERY IMPORTANT building to their Species?

*IF David was the MAIN survivor on Planet 4 (Pathogen has no Effect on him) then WHY would the Face Hugger be Considered a Danger to him?  If its Aggressive then HOW would that Effect David?

*WHY would David go on to Create yet EVEN MORE of these Eggs?  His Xenomorph seems more Aggressive/Feral than the ones in ALIEN/ALIENS. So WHY would he go Destroy it to Create more Aggressive Ones?

*IF there already was a EGG then WHY would he waste his TIME with those Experiments?  And his NOTES etc, does he TRY and Create something NOT as Perfect and then SOME-HOW with the Dead Face Hugger and Dr Shaw he managed to THEN go and Create those Eggs.

It seems that IF we had it that David had Found the EGG then surely he would concentrate on Clone that with the Black Goo to Create the Eggs.... it seems Waste Time doing other stuff.....   What the Drafts, his Lab Notes/Drawings go on to Show is that he Painstakingly went through a Labor or Love to Finally Create the Xenomorph.

I have NOT read the RPG Material but it seems the IDEA is that the Black Goo contains Xeno-Dna and via Certain Events eventually the Xenomorph would EVOLVE from the Black Goo and Creations from it... at some point the Xenomorph will ALWAYS be the End Product/Evolution.

A BETTER Explanation could be USED.... which i will ADD in my Topic about the CREATOR.

BigDave

What are your thoughts on the ALIEN RPG?

Thoughts_Dreams

What's wrong with android protagonists or any non-human protagonist?

I think an android protagonist would be awesome if it was a coming of age story, just without the android going insane and making biomechanical horrors. So basically a good David, doesn't have to be a David model specifically. But I am one of the type of people who would have preferred a Yautja protagonist over a human one for an Alien vs Predator movie.

Oh and here I thought Alan Dean Foster based his book on a pre-shooting script version of Alien Covenant

David as the creator really annoys me. I sort of understand the idea about mankind doing something that could bring it down, but it makes the monster indirectly a result of human activity, it takes away the alien-ness of it. The more that this series can point the finger at that, the better, sort of F you. As far as discredit it, the more they do that, the better. David as the creator of the monster should be undone, and if that is being done in a blunt way, then alright.

If we get another alien-movie it could be a problem with the Alien-connection if it has David in a too much of a role, especially for those that don't like it being taken over by androids. I'm one of those people that don't like the big role being given to androids at the expense of the human journey.

“What would you LIKE to see as the Eventual Creation/Origin of the Xenomorph?"

Being done by the Engineers, or something that the Engineers found and developed. Something that we (mankind) has a difficult way of understanding, or maybe don't really understand at all. This could bring back the unknown factor into it, which is really needed with the fiasco of the David-obsessive part of the prequels this far.

“Finally do you Expect the TV Series and revealing the Xenomorph some 22+ Years prior to ALIEN to Damage the Origins or Uplift them?"

It depends on how it's done, I would like to be shown that its roots go back waay back before David, so it can get ancient and a mystery again. Whatever they do, I guess that it’ll be better than in the prequels anyways.

With the Latest News i have LOWERED my Expectations... but it will Please some Fans who were AGAINST the Prequels.

It seems that Writers NEVER have a Clue on HOW to Continue with anything that DOES-NOT go and Contradict what was Prior.... NOT a lot of Thought!

I just think the SHOW will make a MESS of whatever we have seen so FAR......

Unless its a Alternative Universe Take.....

SURPRISE!

What can we make of this a Surprise would mean that we would either see something we NEVER EXPECT, something from the Prior Movies (not inc the Xenomorph) or a Surprising Thing about the Xenomorph thats either New or something Planned but Unused.

As they claim Surprises this means more than ONE....

They Confirm that NONE of the Characters in ALIEN will appear and it WONT be a Ripley Story so NO like Relatives to her....

This does-not mean we wont see Characters (or other things) from the Prequels... i am NOT sure they would Budget for having Fassbender make a Appearance though....  But as for Guy Pearce?  Who knows...  this does-not mean the Actual Weyland on the Prometheus, we could have Flash Backs or just his Image used?

But this is Wild Speculation at Best.............

However.... the TV Show which will be set between 2092-2099 Ball Park would mean its LIKELY to take place after the Prometheus has Departed and maybe even AFTER the Prometheus Mission went to POT!

What state is Weyland Industries in after Prometheus?  so maybe dealing with this and introducing Yutani as well as other Corporations could be what to Expect.

Surprise could also be we see a Engineer Ship.... does some Company go to LV-223 between say 2094-2099 and bring something BACK to Earth?

What we have seen so FAR is a Structure that resembles the Engineers Architecture/Designs from the Juggernauts which appears to be Partially Flooded....  do they Discover a Ship thats been UNDERWATER for a LONG TIME?

I think the TV Show could Connect/Show some things Connected to the Prequels... well Prometheus rather than from ALIEN/ALIENS so No Colonial Marines etc.

We can only Speculate.... i am Concerned this would CONFLICT the Franchise though... unless its a ALTERNATIVE TAKE.

This is KIND OF some Interesting News but its also a BIT of a Confusion.  When it was announced the TV Show would be SET in the NOT too Distant Future and would be Centered around and MAINLY on Earth..... this seemed to me to mean we would be at least 50 Years before ALIEN but at least 25 Years from Now.... so i thought we would be looking at a 2047-2072 Ball Park.

We got the Impression the Action would be on Earth and eventually it would see the Xenomorph and it would also be a Action Heavy TV Show once we get DEEP into the Xenomorph Outbreak.  This would CONTRADICT the Original Movies and Prequels if its SET on Earth and Prior to those Movies.

Hence i was DRAWN to this being a Ret-Con....of sorts.

It seemed it would NOT Focus on W-Y but other Corporations and this was ANOTHER reason i thought we have a Reboot of Sorts on our Hands.

HOWEVER..... with this News about the Show being SET in 70 Years and so 2092 this PLACES it within the same Year that the PROMETHEUS Mission would have Occurred.. and so the Prometheus Mission would either had been Preparing (Employing Crew etc) or Began its Voyage during the Events of the SHOW!

I am sure we can see where some Conflicts are going to Happen (Example while the Prometheus is on its way to LV-223, then we somehow have Xenomorphs on Earth!).

If the TV Show is NOT a Reboot and so FITS as Canon to the Movies... so while there is a Xenomorph Outbreak on Earth the USCSS Prometheus is on its way to LV-223 then i cant see HOW this cant go and CONFLICT the Prequels..

Especially if the Xenomorph is Discovered away from EARTH.

Regarding DAVID......

The Original Idea behind the Xenomorph with RS when working on the Prequels was they was a ENGINEERED Weapon by the Engineers.... Prometheus decided to TONE this DOWN.. but show the Black Goo and other Clues to Draw us to Conclude that WHAT was going on with LV-223 has some Connection to LV-426 (RS even explained it in a Interview, something on LV-223 had EVOLVED in the Cargo Hold of the Derelict, the Pilot Infected then headed to LV-426 to Quarantine the Ship.

The Next Two Movies would STEER AWAY from LV-426 and would NOT go and give us the Xenomorph of Explanation... it would instead at some POINT show that David would become Fascinated with the Black Goo Bio-Weapon and its Potential to Create Horrific Life... that HE would Create his OWN MONSTER after he unleashes the Black Goo on the Engineers and sees the Results (another Type of Monster), he decides to CREATE/ENGINEER his OWN....

You would NOT need to know WHAT came First and How as FAR as the Chicken and the Egg.... if you say SHOWED what came First with the Snake and the Egg... if you Get what i mean?

But come Spring 2015 they had Decided to Change Plans... in what then during the Summer would become Alien Covenant, where we would GET the Xenomorph (seemed RS felt it was NOT needed, but ALAS) and so at some POINT it was Decided that NOT ONLY do we go and SHOW the Origins to the Xenomorph... the Curve-ball would be that David had Created it.

Confusion happened after the NOVEL had indicated otherwise, but this appears to be Alan Dean Foster putting his OWN SPIN on it in Disagreement/Disappointment that David would be the Creator.... but the 4 Drafts of Alien Covenant had NONE of the Additions he made.

The Fanbase was UP IN ARMS over the David Creator Arc..... when we get to some of the Later Comics (2018+) and the RPG Game its implied again the Xenomorph had Existed prior to David, but they did so in a WAY that made a BIT more sense than what ADF was implying in the Novel which makes NO SENSE!

Unless you take Commentary and Comments by RS as Not Canon and IF you pay NO attention to Davids Notes/Drawings (which are not Clearly Detailed in the Movie) then can not 100% Clarify that David created the Xenomorph and with NO MORE Prequels its LEFT as OPEN.

Regarding Davids Xenomorph in the TV Series, what i mean is it seems that Aesthetically it is more in Common with Davids Design than we see in ALIEN/ALIENS (more Organic and Gestates with all 4 Limbs) and so much like the Runner from Alien 3 too (Organic and born Fully Formed).

you forgot about this one

 However from what Big Dave revealed they are using David's xenomorph instead of the original Engineer xenomorph

well in some sources, David merely recreates the xenomorph that the engineers had already made. But this doesn't make any sense with covenant because everyone will be dead before the colonization project even began, FTL is slower in PROMETHEUS then it is in ALIENS

Hmmm. About the time that the Prometheus sets off on its journey, then. How does that work, when David allegedly creates the Alien, some years after that?

My expectations are low but I hope it turns out good. Yeah, Alien 3 and Covenant wasn't the best (even though I personally find Covenant pretty good), I'm mostly excited on seeing a xenomorph

It had been Teased thats for sure, even a Tease that Prometheus will have TWO Synthetics... but they may have been Alluding to the LV-223 Engineers.

However we have to maybe look at the GOAL of Peter Weyland, he wants to be Immortal or have Prolonged Life.  And so IF he had Successfully been able to Create a Synthetic in the Image of his Daughter and been ABLE to Upload her Consciousness/Soul into the Synthetic Body.  Then we would have to ask WHY would he NOT go and do the same with himself?

If Vickers was a TEST and he had to WAIT for Results... then surely he would COMMAND someone like David to Oversee this and WHEN its Confirmed this Experiment Works and shows NO SIGNS of Failure, then David could keep Weyland on ICE until the Results are in and then Weyland has the same Process done to himself.

THIS ^^^^ is what i was touching on with my Prometheus 2 idea, however Weyland could NOT Perfect the Soul Transfer.... this STORY did have a Robot Vickers though... but the Original Vickers was on the Prometheus and Died on LV-223.

Also IF she was a Robot, she would be ONE where it seems SHE is NOT aware of such, which would be ODD... unless she was a Replicant/Clone instead.

It seems that our Meredith was NOT a Synthetic.

Yeah kind of i think it  depends on HOW you look at the Origins/Connection which has been Quite Vague.  But to even IGNORE what other stuff the Engineers had Created with the Black Goo or its Origins etc.

Then the Xenomorph itself could be Evolved either Genetically by Experiments or via some kind of Natural Evolution of its Species itself.

We have seen Numerous Variants of Monster Concepts for the Movies some look FAR LESS like the Xenomorphs from ALIEN/ALIENS than others.

It seems maybe the Xenomorph in the TV Series may NOT be the Black/Grey color that we see from Alien and Aliens but more like the Runner from Alien 3

Maybe it will look a LITTLE DIFFERENT but i dont think it would be TOO FAR away from the Xenomorph like say the Newborn, Neomorph and Deacon are.

The differences could be SUBTLE like below.

They will LIKELY come from Eggs (or we will eventually see Eggs) but we may be given a DIFFERENT way of Procreation rather than be shown a Queen. The Face Hugger seems to be Nearly the Same as what we are USED too, but the Gestating Xenomorph is more like the Runner from Alien  3 and Protomorph from Alien Covenant.

HOWEVER...... Design could Change by the Time that Production is Finished (under way at the Moment).

I think Alien Resurrection had some Interesting things going on that are NOT quite so Obvious that could be Expanded upon... but OVERALL i would say Yeah the Execution and Characters are NOT that Good.

The Newborn could have been Better and it did make the QUEEN look Weak!

I highly doubt that Meredith was a synthetic since the tie websites and the movie prometheus made a big deal of David being the first advanced synthetic

"Thoughts_Dreams - As far as I know the only female android this far is Call"

I subscribe to the theory that Meredith Vickers was an android too, even if she did have sex with Idris Janek. Surely Weyland produced pleasure models like Tyrell Corporation made Pris in the Blade Runner Universe, so I think it would be hard to tell if she was human or not.

In addition, I saw a recent Alien Theory Video (https://youtu.be/EXbWmsd4CWo) in which it is explained that there was a MU/TH/UR 6000 A.I. on the Alien Covenant website which answered questions, and when someone asked "When did Meredith Vickers die?" it gave the answer "June 29th 2049" when you would expect the answer to be December of 2093 (when Prometheus takes place) or more precisely New Years Day of 2094.

Perhaps Vickers was an experiment which Weyland wanted to keep around to remind him of his deceased Daughter? a parallel to David, in which even she was not aware she was an artificial person? Certainly an interesting theory. 

Oh I thought he became the overseer of ALIEN canon