Comments (Page 66)

wait 2014? Isn't that two years after the Weyland Corp was founded and Peter Weyland would be in his early 20's 

I really like her lips and teeth, so yeah I wouldn't mind this hybrid design. The Newborn was just plain ol'nasty

Damn I would have really liked that they kept Shaw alive

Indeed Thoughts_Dreams, the source is questionable with no other way to validate their claims. However, I have yet to find a duplicate of this image anywhere else so far. So, for now it remains 50/50! 

It is way better than the Newborn design, though. So I wouldn't be mad at all if it proves to be legit.

At least its prettier than the newborn

TexansDoitBest

First I would like to say welcome, I hope that you’ll like it here. Second about ending the prequels it depends. I would like to see them end the prequels if

1. They become less about David

2. Have better human characters

3. Have more of the Engineers and

4. make sure that David didn't create the alien that we see in the movie of 1979, he just did his own version. 

Making it so humans create androids that create the monster make it indirectly made by humans, while that might be interesting to some it takes the mystery away. I would rather have it some the Engineers made it and David made his own version and the Engineers take it and change it so David did the middle-version. Don't let him being the reson why its bio-mechanical because that's lame. 

“but the best script will include both the aliens and the AI, maintaining the theme since Alien 1, with mankind suffering in the middle.” 

What about the Engineers? They are one of the good things from the prequels. I would like to see more of them and less about David.

Anyone can be an anonymous source, if I said that they will do X in that series does that make me trustworthy? I doubt it. That picture is like a mix of a Xeno and the Newborn, it could be better and it could be worse.

Yeah she kind of has a look similar to Sigourney's Ripley too. I'm not opposed to her taking up the torch... and using it on Xenomorphs!

Agreed, but I'm surprised and also curious how they'll explain the presence of Xenomorph-like hybridization when the Alien DNA hasn't been discovered yet. Makes me think the series will allude to Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy Corporations having prior knowledge of the Xenomorph beyond what we originally thought after watching the films.

Hmmm something tells me this is probably a failed hybrid

I'm more interested in having a TV-show than to get another one about androids playing flute with almost no character to care about.

I haven't heard of the Illuminerdi page before so I can't say if its trustworthy or not.

As long as the whole thing isn't about androids I guess it's alright. Introducing another corporation could be riveting since it's good to see new things.

“... assimilating Human consciousness into Synthetic bodies.”

That could something, it depends on how it's done. I like how they use it as some metaphor for things that are around today if that's what it means.

The creator and the created theme is interesting. Hopefully they'll get it right this time since the prequels didn't. Unfortunately the prequels turned into disappointments even though they had potential. Not everything about the prequels is bad but the good parts are too few compared to the disappointments.

Maybe it would be better if it would be in space but we’ll see. AVP had it on earth in the Antarctic but that was in a secluded area so maybe there is a way to make something similar. The Predator (first movie, 1987) as in the jungle so there could a way.

Agreed, SuperAlien. This franchise is not about Aliens on Earth. I just keep getting AvP vibes. Although I like the showrunner Noah Hawley and his work, I too am unhappy Ridley isn't continuing his Covenant sequel ideas (yet). I'm praying to the Engineers that this new series isn't an absolute dumpster fire. Trying to remain as optimistic as I can...

Hermit and Wendy? The Prodigy Corporation? Uninspiring names, at least. I think they got it wrong with the direction of this reboot on Earth.

Alien is about humans in space, not aliens on Earth.

I am still unhappy Ridley did not get to make the sequel to Alien Covenant. I might never recover. But I missed you guys. My best wishes for all.

Regardless of everyone's opinions about Covenant (which i thought was a good movie but not as good as Prometheus), i assume we want Mr. Scott to finish what he started, i beg him to make at least one more movie to close his storyline.  David is now terrifying, but the best script will include both the aliens and the AI, maintaining the theme since Alien 1, with mankind suffering in the middle.

I really need to start watching Raised by Wolves

Hi welcome to the forums

That's what I always understood her to be, but as more of a prototype than an actual queen. There were a few threads on the subject way back when Alien Covenant was released. 

Thank you Chris! 
Yeah it looks like a Fan Art or enhanced Concept art for who knows what projects are in the making.. But I really looked into it and only found twitter posts of people discussiong possible story ideas for the "Prometheus2" movies :/

If you find the source I would be super happy :)

Also I will post my own artwork here when its finished ^^

Wait the creation can't be more advanced than the creators also this fan theory ruins the whole the theme to Alien: Engineers/Prometheus

Trailer of the second season of Raised by Wolves:

https://youtu.be/R6Kqm0qJ9Uc

Yeah I was totally ignoring the translated dialogue between David and the Engineer, figuring it could easily be ret-conned with the series if they choose to do so. But for this theory to work it would require the Engineers to have the ability of bending / warping space time, which isn't totally out of the realm of possibility.

Hey welcome to the forums! That image dates back quite a few years, I think it's fan art if memory serves... although I'm not 100%. It was linked to this topic but I haven't found a source for the image yet, I'll see if I can find it!

CHAPTER 8: INCIDENT

Locale: LV-1201, Primary Operations Complex, Animal Storage.

Date: November 25, 2230. 5:18 AM.

The Drone arrives in a vast tunnel complex, the walls looked age and rusted, the room was barely illuminated by weak yellow lights. She sneaks up on a lone guard programming a sentry gun in the middle of the corridor. She stings him with her stinger, his body goes limp as she drags him off to a dark corner. Where she had constructed a new nest out of the guard’s fellows. She cocoons the guard in her scretid resin before abandoning him to his fate. The cocooned guard opposite of him had just finished metamorphosing into an ovomorph. The ovomorph peeled back its petal-like lips as a facehugger slowly made its way out. The man’s screams echoed down the hall, then he went silent.

The Drone made its way into the air ducts looking for a safe route to collect more hosts. It didn’t matter to the drone if they were human or not, a host is a host. She heard activated sentry gun’s electronic beeps and mechanical swivels, she knew they were waiting for her down below, she encountered a few earlier and nearly lost a limb to them; she is more careful now, she learned to avoid them. The sounds of her children and hivemates screaming as they were gunned down by the sentry turrets made the Drone furious. 

Then came a loud roar that triggered a hive memory in the Drone. Images of ancient Yautja hunting their kind on this planet some odd 500 years ago flooded into the Drone’s mind. She redirected herself down the adjacent air vent, looking for her ancient enemy. Her rapid movements gave away her position to the human’s motion trackers below.

“It's in the air vents. Coming your way” radioed one of the guards.

“What do we do?” asked a guard.

“Shoot it,” radioed the other guard.

“Yes, sir” the local guard complied.

“Set up some turrets in the crawlspaces. We need to keep it contained in the corridors'' radioed the other guard.

The Drone cuts the power to the fans below her, she then slips through the ceiling down on top of her fleeing prey. She stings a civilian but is shot in the shoulder by a local guard. She leaps at him, killing him with her combined weight, momentum, strength and a forced blunt trauma to the back of his skull from a metal supply crate. She drops his lifeless corpse as she waits for her wound to heal. Two more guards come running down the ramp, she kills them both. Their bodies were recycled into ovomorphs as she built yet another nest. Now onto the turrets up ahead, she shiftly disables the two that had their backs turned. She leaps across the room to disable the other. She had avenged her hivemates however she was not done with this place just yet. She must find more hosts to replenish her hive’s numbers.

Two APE commandos hear the sounds of personnel screaming over the radio and the echoing down the corridors. They were all then systematically silenced. The two guards quickly retreat back onto the elevator lift, fearing the same fate as the others. The Drone had already picked up their scent, she snarled as they were carried away by the elevator. She leaps onto the shaft wall as she begins to climb. She leapt onto the underneath of the rising elevator; it was barely even halfway up the shaft shaft; she impaled one of the APE commandos with her tail before casting him down the shaft. The other commando readies his pulse rifle, he pops in a few shots at her. The Drone avoids the gun fire as she retreats over the ledge of the lift. She crawls over to the other side.

The Drone returns from the ledge behind him. “Command, I think…!” The APE commando is silenced as the Drone penetrates the commando’s skull with her inner jaws. The Drone turns her head and spots a yautja at the bottom of the shaft, she leapt from the lift’s ledge. She drops to the bottom of the shaft, her durable mesoskeleton allows her body to remain unharmed from the fall. She follows the scent trail of the fleeing Yautja.

“Where is it?” said one of the guards

“Should be headed your way” radio replies.

She finds herself a lone guard and a science technician in a cramped chamber adorned with massive windows leading to another tunnel below. The Drone leaps onto the invisible yautja, throwing both of themselves into one of the windows. They plummet to the chamber below, the yautja throws the xenomorph off of himself but he does not engage it, instead he continues to run. The Drone slowly recovers, growing more agitated. She hears more humans down the hall. When Yautja turns around, he flashes his biomask’s optics to signal the kainde amedha. The Drone snarls as she continues to chase the Yautja further in the tunnels.

“Seal the gate”

“Keep it out of the pipes”

A shimmer bolts past the guards, they feel a gentle breeze the guards bolt as they see the xenomorph run past them. The Drone will have to deal with the guards after she deals with this ancient enemy. She leaps down into an open chamber four floors down. There the yautja was waiting for her. He wore light armor, the hive memory tells the Drone this one is an inexperienced yautja called a young blood. Memories inherited from the surviving xenomorphs that killed these inexperienced warriors came flooding into the Drone’s mind. She lances her tail at the weakest part of the yautja’s armor. The neck region, the young blood deflects her tail with his combi-stick. Beginner's luck, the drone drops to all fours as she stays low to the ground, thrashing her tail around to get ready to sting her prey.

The young blood could feel the fiery rage building inside of him, he wants to claim this kainde amedha’s head for a trophy. The Drone wraps her tail around the combi-stick, the yautja pulls his spear away but the tail has a good grip around it. The Drone pulls the combi-stick free of the young blood’s grasp. She drags the combi-stick away.

The young blood feeling his pride being mocked by the kainde amedha readies his plasma caster, he targets the xenomorph. The Drone bolts to the other side of the room. The young blood has now turned his entire body to fire his shoulder cannon. The Drone hides behind a large crate. The young blood clicks his mandibles rapidly, he emits three red dots on the crate. His plasma caster begins charging up. The Drone abandons the combi-stick as she leaps out onto the wall from behind the crate as the young blood fires his plasma caster. The crate explodes into molten metal as shrapnel is sent flying. The Drone builds up momentum from running along the walls, leaping at the young blood. The young blood struggles, the Drone fires her inner jaws into the Plasma Caster’s powerpack, the young blood finds the strength to throw the drone off of himself. 

He attempts to fire his plasma caster, the shoulder cannon barely fires a free particle. The young blood growls angrily as he shoves his damaged powerpack off his shoulder along with the plasma caster. The Drone was back on top of him, he extended his wristblades to stab the Drone in her stomach but he missed and hit the bony part of her ribcage instead.The Drone leaps from her prey, she holds her injured ribs, acid blood drips from her wound. The young blood flips open his gauntlet, he taps at the tiny windows built into the gauntlet. Red digital markings appear in the tiny windows, the symbols changing frequently. The young blood began making strange noises along with clicking his mandibles rapidly. 

The guards above look down, “Is it laughing?”

The yautja’s laughter triggers another hive memory, the Drone recalls from one of her ancestors: They were swarming a yautja hunting band, the recalled memory came from one of the warriors in the distance. The warrior recounted the yautja laughing before being engulfed by a ball of light taking the warrior’s sisters. The xenomorph warrior attempted to flee along with many others but the blast set the forest alight, the warrior was set ablaze but fortunately she and several others fell into a deep pond. When they surfaced, they spotted the charred remains of their sisters. 

The Drone bolts up the shaft, she ignores the security guards as self-preservation takes over. The xenomorph retreated back into the tunnels as the yautja’s laughter was growing more and more distant. Then came the explosion. The Drone slowly returns and she notices the chamber was now a ruined mess. The other exits were sealed off by the guards earlier, before the guards were killed instantly by the explosion. She peaked over where the young blood once stood in his place was a massive hole in the floor. The panel the Drone was standing on slips causing the xenomorph to plummet into the hole. She lands in a maintenance pipe hub, where one of the pipe hatches was left open.

“It’s in the pipes. It’s going to get out” said one of the security technicians staring through the pipeway’s camera, as the xenomorph makes her escape. Commander Hadden watches over the man’s shoulder accompanied by a squad of security guards.

“Notify Rykov,” Commander Hadden commands.

“You said he couldn’t get here in time,” the technician recalled.

“He can’t. Sound the general alarm and send any available security teams down there on the double. We can at least buy some time for civilian personnel to make it to the shelters,” Commander Hadden orders.

“Yes, sir” the security technicians complied.

“Activate the distress beacon and notify Gateway. Maybe the Pods can hold out until help arrives” Commander Hadden added.

Locale: Forward Observation Pods, transmission room.

The illuminating lights of console buttons filled the room but yet the room was still shrouded in darkness. A woman is at her computer, working on something. Dr. Eisenberg standing behind her.

“I’m routing the security feeds through to the monitor banks now,” the pod’s security technician.

“Cut the transmission” Dr. Eisenberg orders her. The technician ignored him. Dr. Eisernberg grew more aggravated, having to repeat himself. “I said cut the transmission. I will not let them gloat. I won’t give them the satisfaction,” Eisenberg growled.

Locale: Lv-1201, Primary Observation Complex

Date: November 26, 2230

Two security guards are standing guard over the starport.

“You heard what happened to garibaldi?” asked one of the guards.

“Yeah… Blainly, been trying to keep it quiet. But I hear they had to check the dental records” the other guard added.

“I wish. They found him hanging upside down with no skin left on him” the first guard elaborated.

“Damn” the second guard reacted, disturbed.

“You got that right. Markinson said his skull was gone. Like somebody took it for a trophy” the first guard revealed more of the story to his coworker.

“Alright, Alright. You can stop now. I’m freaked enough as it is” the second guard was getting goosebumps.

The predator looks down from his vantage point at the corporate guards. He leaps down into the clearing. He uncloaks revealing himself to the two corporate guards.

“What the hell is that?” The guards stared at the alien hunter in horror. The predator takes both guards out by surprise. He skins them before roping up their hanging corpses on a nearby street lamp. The yautja is soon greeted by others of his kind.

“Gara-hish-di, hasn’t reported back” the predator reported to the hunting captain. 

“He moved without following, Gara-hish-di is more than likely dead. The tunnels are full of kainde amedha,” the hunting hunting taps at his wrist computer, images of the POC’s maps are downloaded into the other yautja’s bio-helmets.

“Spread out, for now ignore the oomens unless an opportunity arises that you fight one of exceptional talents and skill. Don’t waste your time on the weaker ones unless they attack you first” the hunting captain orders.

Date: November 28, 2230

Blaney and his men were marching to the local jailing center. The barricade had since been overrun by the xenomorphs and Blanely’s team had taken caultities. He needed more men, they had fallen back to the next barricade. He approached the jailing center doors and took a deep breath before entering the facility. There he began towards a door, there a man looked out from the multi-bar window.

“Martin Xavier” Blaney said coldly.

“Joss Blaney, my replacement” Xavier looked at the security guard with contempt. Not with him but the man who holds Blaney’s leash. 

“You were arrested for stealing company property…what happened to you man? It wasn’t long ago that you once commanded security?” Blaney asked.

“All in the past now, my friend,” Xavier replied, “So did you come here to say hi or do you need me for something? Perhaps a manpower shortage?”

“We need every able body person to beat back this containment break” Blaney replied, “You have fought these creatures, so you must…”

“There is no advice I can give you. You are not properly equipped to deal with them, you will need military grade weaponry”

“We will make do without them, shoot them enough times they will bleed” Blaney retorts.

“Even so, the likelihood of our survival is slim,” Xavier added.

Blaney gives the signal to his men to open the cell doors, the remaining laborers all step out. “You and your men are coming with me, no questions asked. Oh and remember the gate closes at fifteen to sundown. You're not inside - you're on your own. Just stick to regs”

Hours passed, the xenomorphs had broken into the second barricade. They took more civilian personnel. Everywhere they turned they saw nest after nest of cocooned dead bodies and empty eggs. Blaney rendezvous with Commander Hadden and his men.

“Commander Hadden, sir” Blaney salutes.

“Captain Blaney, we have security personnel that need evacuating from the lower crew quarters then we will rendezvous to hold the landing bays”

“Yes, sir.” Blaney gathers his men and some of the convicts to head for the lower quarters. 

The xenomorphs had broken through the last barricade, swarming Commander Hadden and his men. The security guards unload entire clips of their magazine into the xenomorphs but nothing can stop them. Their weapons were too weak to properly damage their armor, too weak to kill them. The security guards were ripped apart by the xenomorph warriors.

“I will not go like them… I’ll take you bastards with me!” Hadden cursed as he pulled the pin from his grenade. An explosion was heard, Blaney knew it was Commander Hadden. Holding the landing bays is going to be tough with only a handful of guards and convicts.

CHAPTER 7: CONTAINMENT

Locale: Lv-1201, Epsilon Draconis 1

Date: November 23, 2230

In the deep recesses of space a M-class Star Freighter encroaches on the planet LV-1201.

“Cargo vessel Aurora, you are clear for approach. Log on to channel zero one miner for landing beacon and weather data” The space traffic control transmits to the M-class Star Freighter Aurora.

The aurora slowly made its descent, it slowly and carefully landed in the start port. A long tubular arm hooks into the Aurora supplying it fuel. Power loaders get to work by removing supply crates from the aurora.

“I instructed you to have this shipment stowed by 09:30” Cisco shouted angrily at one of the starport workers as a P-5000 “CAT” Power Loader slowly walked past them with a large crate.

“You also told us to expect nine containers. We received seventeen” the starport worker explained.

“I don’t want to hear excuses. Get it done!” Cisco was growing madder at the worker.

Locale: Lv-1201, POC starport, M-Class Star Freighter Aurora

Date: November 23, 2230. 10:13 PM

Dr Arnaud Eisenberg boards the ship, he meets with the acting science officer, a blonde Weyland-Yutani agent. He glances at the rest of the crew, they were just moving about minding their business. He could hear their engineers in the background asking about their shares.

“The Committee is concerned, Doctor. The loss of Pod 5 is a major blow” the weyland-yutani representative voiced her concerns.

“Setbacks are to be expected” Eisenberg downplayed the tragedy.

“Yes, Doctor Eisenberg, but the Committee is still waiting to see progress” the representative is growing impatient.

“We’ve made considerable strides in deciphering the xenomorph chemistry” Eisenberg proudly declared to the representative.

“The Committee wants commercial applications. You promised us cures; instead they hear stories of unauthorized research. There’s even a rumor you want to try to harness and control the Hive”

“I’m not responsible for what politicians and corporate brass choose to believe,” Eisenberg was growing frustrated.

“I would hate to see your attitude jeopardize your future here” the weyland-yutani representative threatens.

“I’m not about to let this project get away from me. File that in your report” Eisenberg retorts bitterly.

Locale: Lv-1201, POC laboratory.

A man dressed in a dark colored heavy coat walks down the corridors passing by a few laboratories along the way, he stops at the door Laboratory 1B, he stares at his watch waiting patiently for his next assignment.

He hears the sound of wheels moving, he spots a large crate on a trolley cart being pushed by a woman dressed in a black clade armored uniform. She is one of them Iron Bear Mercs. The mercs always give him a bad vibe, maybe it's because they usually operate within UPP space or maybe because it's filled with UPP members. As a man who hails from UA space, he has a natural distrust for them, however as a secret smuggler they do pay him well. She draws closer with the crate.

“You’re late. What’s that?” Jonas asked.

“The package is larger than normal. So is your payment. As always, do not open it” Dunya instructed.

“Don’t worry, I’m good at keeping my mouth shut” he takes control over the trolley. “See ya sweetie” he says as he pushes the cart to his destination. He now arrives at the starport landing pad. He spots several massive crates and people managing the cargo with their power loaders. He waves at them, exchanging pleasantries as he pushes the cart to the M-Class Star Freighter Aurora. It reminded him of the old M-class star freighters of the early 2100’s. Not many advances in starship technology since the FTL tech revolution.

He pushes the cart up into its cargo bay, he spots an animal cage and several other supply crates. He lifts the crate up off the cart, it feels very heavy and he swore he heard something moving inside. He shrugs before placing the crate on the table, precariously close to the edge. He heard something stirring inside the crate. He is getting those bad UPP vibes again. He taps the functions at the base of his table.

“Scan completed. Report inconclusive. Target is shield” the computer spoke with a masculine voice.

“I don’t like this” Jonas had a bad gut feeling about this crate.

“Captain acquired on deck” his warrant officer radioed in.

“I’ll be right out” Jonas walks down the ramp, a security officer was waiting for him. “What's the problem?” he asked the guard.

“Richter, General Rykov wants to see you. Now” the security officer demanded.

“You’ve got to be kidding. I’m scheduled for departure in 15,” Jonas Richter protested.

“Schedule’s changed. Get moving” the officer ordered.

“Ah, come on Lloyd. Give me a break” Jonas growls.

“Let’s go. Hotshot” Officer Lloyd replied.

It senses the bodies were leaving, it was now alone. It hated being alone. It knew its purpose in life was about to end, it knew its companion dwelling inside of itself wanted to be born, it wanted to abandon it as well like the bodies. But it knew if it did nothing, it’s life and its companion might expire together but not sure when. It needs a body… It’s companion stirred rapidly inside of itself. Luck was on its side, the ramp of the ship closed off its cargo bay. The rumble from it caused the already precarious perched crate to tumble to the floor. The gases in the crate pops the lid straight off. The ovomorph was exposed to fresh air for the first time in a long while and also its last. It peeled back its petal-like appendages, ending its own life. It too has abandoned its companion.

The facehugger senses its “mother” had passed, it couldn’t remain with it any longer or else it too would die. He taps its finger-like legs on the ground, using the vibrations to map out its surroundings.

“Warning. Contaminant detected in cargo hold” The ship’s A.I. MU/TH/ER detected the facehugger’s presence. The facehugger startled by the sounds of the synthesized female voice, scurried along the floor before learning to climb up the walls. It awkwardly falls back to the floor, it had  now fully mapped its surroundings but one thing it didn’t map out was the ladder. It throws itself on to the ladder, its finger-legs gripping every bar until it reaches the top. It leaps off the ladder apex into the maintenance room. The changes in air pressure and density allowed it to decide where to go next. It scurried closer to the fuel pump. It could feel the pipe pumping fuel from the starport into the freighter. Fortunately for it, the pipe was encased in a spacious catwalk. It scurries into the fueling arm. It can sense several bodies below it but too far for it to reach.

“Get the hell out of my way!” yelled the corporate guard, Cisco, to one of the other guards.

“Sorry, sir” the guard apologized sarcastically.

“Don’t sass. Me soldier” Cisco retorted.

“Sorry, sir” the guard apologized more sincerely.

The facehugger is now free from the freighter as it now crawls within the fueling station’s walls. It carefully navigates its way past the pipes and ventilation fans as it searches for a body. It needs a body more than its “mother” did, like its “mother” the ovomorph, a body will allow the facehugger to pass on its companion dwelling within it. However unlike an ovomorph, it does not contain a living organism…not yet. Instead it carries a highly infectious microbial agent that's more akin to nanites than a natural virus. It must find itself a body soon or else it too will perish along with its cargo. The facehugger was now in the ventilation unit above a hallway. It could sense several out of reach bodies.

“You’re not getting paid to daydream. Can’t you find something useful to do?” Cisco barked at the two guards standing in front of a large door.

“Yes, sir,” one of the guards answered.

“That guy has issues,” said the second guard.

“No wonder he doesn’t have any friends,” the first guard added.

Cisco walks down the corridor and spots a third guard in his way, “Is it necessary to stand right in the middle of the corridor?” he demanded an immediate answer.

“N-no, sir” said the third guard.

“Idiot” Cisco snarled as he walked off. The facehugger read the one called Cisco’s pheromones and detected high levels of aggression induced chemicals it found attractive. The facehugger began to release a colorless chemical down the vented ceiling onto Cisco. Cisco passes into the invisible chemical none the wiser. It found its body, now it must find a way to become one with it. Cisco passes by two additional guards before taking a left turn into another hallway. 

“Why aren’t you men at your usual post?” Cisco barked.

“Sir, Sergeant Cole said…” the guard was cut off by Cisco.

“I don’t care what Sergeant Cole said, you men are not at your usual posts” Cisco demanded.

The facehugger crawls into a room, it quickly hides behind some crates to avoid being spotted. It senses two bodies behind a mesh fence.

“Somebody hacked the system. I’m serious” said one of the technicians.

“Just drop it already,” said the other technician, with a thick new yorker accent.

“I’m talking about permanent changes to the database: duty rosters, inventory, specimen samples, all kinds of stuff” the paranoid technician insisted.

“Did you check the log?” the new yorker technician asked for confirmation.

“No record. Whoever did this was a pro. I’m betting it was one of Rykov’s cronies” the paranoid technician accused.

“What do you have against that guy, anyway?” the new yorker technician asked curiously.

“Do you trust him? You know he got kicked out of the military” the paranoid technician added.

“He didn’t get kicked out. He was honorably discharged. For medical reasons. One of the Bears told me” the new yorker technician said matter-of-factly.

“You believe a mercenary? Look, the point is that someone’s been messing with the system” the paranoid technician added.

“Yeah, and my point is it’s better if someone else makes the report. Why get involved? Did it happen on your shift?” The new yorker technician was growing increasingly annoyed at his coworker.

“Now that you mention it…” the paranoid technician replies. 

There is a brief pause before the new yorker technician adds, “Besides, you bring the heat down your own dumb ass, I’m gonna get burned too”

The facehugger crawls through the maintenance ducts, it senses several bodies above itself but it's not interested in them. 

“You going on duty?” asks Nastasha, a young technician. She walks up to her boyfriend Joss Blaney, one of the security guards.

“Yeah,” Blanely replies.

“Hold up a sec. Let me grab my coat” she ran back into her quarters.

“My shift will be boring,” Blanely added.

“I don’t care as long as I’m with you” Natasha replies.

“Heh, alright” Blaney chuckles, happy to see his girlfriend wants to share some quality time with him.

The facehugger was indifferent to their romance as it continued its journey to stalk Cisco. It sensed a damaged and exposed electrical unit, it instinctually would avoid harming itself but it was between it and Cisco. Fortunately it wasn’t an obstacle and the facehugger passed into the next duct unharmed.

“When’s your tour up?” asks a technician to another.

“Five months”

“That’s not too bad”

“Eh, i’m thinking about doing another one”

“Hmm, yeah right”

“It’s hard to beat the money”

“Just don’t forget it’s hazard pay”

The two lab technicians went back to work, the facehugger crawled out from the ceiling and carefully kept itself latched to the ceiling surface. It makes its way out of the small lab into the adjacent corridor as it slips into an open ceiling maintenance hatch. It passes through into another duct. Before falling out into a sealed hallway. It then sneaks off into a small floor duct into the adjacent corridor. It could sense more bodies.

“This thing’s fried,” said maintenance technician Toby.

“Yep,” his partner agreed, “so what’s next?”

“Uh we should probably check up on the motion tracker out by vehicle maintenance” Toby sounded exhausted as he stood up from the partially open electronic door.

“Stark fixed that this morning,” his partner added.

“Did he?” Toby asked, surprised.

“Yup” his partner confirmed.

“All right, then I guess we can start inspecting the lifts down on sublevel 2” Toby added.

“Aww man” his partner groans.

“Beats unclogging chem toilets” Toby added.

“How's it going Toby?” asks another technician, “Either of you remember the name of that auditor that was in here last week?”

“The one with the nice ass?” Toby asked.

“Why, you in love or something?” the technician asked rhetorically, “I’m supposed to review her report but she hasn’t sent it over yet”

“Wasn’t it Sanchez?” Toby’s partner asked.

“I think it was Sandoval,” Toby added.

“Sanchez sounds right,” the other technician confirms.

“I’m pretty sure it was Sandoval,” Toby insisted. 

“I’ll try both,” the other technician replied. The facehugger leaped behind the talking trio as it made its way to the partially opened door.

“Ask her if she’s dating anybody” Toby asked curiously. The facehugger scurried away into the empty corridor, the scent of the chemical he released on Cisco earlier was getting stronger. He arrived at an open entrance way, it was Cisco. He was sleeping in a chair in the armory. The facehugger leapt from the floor onto the man’s face, Cisco awakens to something heavy on his face and a blockage in his throat before passing back out. A shadow quickly passes over to the door terminal, they shut the door, quickly they open the door terminal and rewire the wires to seal Cisco inside. 

The facehugger unaware of its benefactor continued to release its cargo inside of Cisco. Its senses dulled, it could no longer sense the other bodies, nor Cisco’s. Its legs grip on Cisco’s face grow increasingly weak. Several minutes have passed, then hours, the facehugger felt its life coming to an end. He slips off of Cisco's face, landing on the floor dead. 

Its cargo, black oil-like substance now flowing freely inside of Cisco’s circulatory system, consuming both red and white blood cells into a cancerous biomass. The pathogen now resembling a network of cancers had biomass nodes in key regions of Cisco’s body, like a factory they draw resources from the surrounding organs: blood from the spleen, local vessels, and lungs. Calcium from the ribcage and sternum. These resources are funneled to the main growth located in the chest behind the sternum. It extracts food and oxygen from the blood to fuel its growth and the iron from the blood and the calcium is used to develop its internal skeleton and harden its teeth. It's almost time for its birth, its muscles twitched to life within the cancerous sheath, it flexes the muscles in its jaws testing its teeth’s strength and durability. It senses its host’s fear and confusion, but it was too cramped, it must escape but the enemy was all around it. The chestburster began chewing its way out, it tears through its cancer prison. Next was the softened sternum, then the muscles and skin. 

Cisco was feeling a tremendous amount of pain, he contemplated his choices in life before screaming bloody murder as his chest explodes. Blood splatters all over the computer monitors, the chestburster was finally free. It turned its eyeless gaze back at Cisco, his body sunk into his chair, dead. Some of Cisco’s mind was copied or rather trapped in the chestburster’s personality. It turns away, lacking further interest in his host. It now looks for food. It hears more humans outside of the room, they pound on the sealed door demanding Cisco to open the door. The chestburster quickly slithered out of the window. Fearing for its life. It plummets to the streets below but thankfully its body is stronger than it looks. It carefully slithers into the shadows avoiding the passing guards.

“Where the hell is Cisco?” demanded one of the guards.

“No idea,” replied his comrade.

“He’s fifteen minutes late” the first guard grows angrier.

“I’m sure he’ll show up soon,” the second guard reassures his coworker.

“He better” retorted the first guard.

The chestburster slithers past the two guards, it spots a guard entering a building. The chestburster is tempted to follow in after him but the powered doors close behind him. The chestburster must return to the shadows. It slithers aimlessly until it hears the howling of a monkey. The chestburster slips past a guard whistling to himself as he makes his patrol. It spots a truck driving into its view from the next alley. It quickly slithers under the truck, using it as cover, the guards were busy talking to the driver to notice it.

“That’s the last one” said the guard before allowing the Truck to finish its drop.

“We got shorted on supplies again” said a guard observing the technician in a power loader uploading the supply crates from the truck.

“Yeah,” replied his partner.

“Fifteen containers,” the observing guard added.

“The whole time I've been at this dump we’ve been rationing,” the partner added. The chestburster sneaks its way around the guards and power loader as it slips into the animal storage bay. It hides behind a series of large crates. The monkey starts hooting as the chestburster slithers into a damaged side of the fence. The chestburster finds a howler monkey pacing back and forth in its cage, the snake-like xenomorph shoots open its jaws as it throws itself into the monkey chest, the monkey bear hugs the snake-like creature, the chestburster bites into the monkey’s juglar. The chestburster begins feeding on the monkey.

Locale: Lv-1201, POC starport, Animal Pens

Date: November 24, 2230. 8:00 AM

The following morning, It's been sometime since Cisco hasn’t shown up to work, the guards finally get the door opened. “Hey Cisco sleeping on the job ag…” he shines his flashlight after noticing water dripping from the monitors. “Holy shit, Cisco!” he realized Cisco was not asleep, he was dead. He quickly radio-in to his superior.

“What the hell is that?” said one of the convict laborers approaching the animal storage bay. He stared at the empty skin of the chestburster, “Is that a snake? I don’t remember shipping any snakes”

“Let’s get out of here,” his partner cried.

“Just a minute” the labourer peeked around the crates further. He spots a fully grown xenomorph drone resting on top of the empty monkey cages. “Run like hell” the inmate whispers to his partner.

“Wait what happened to Cisco?” A guard was responding to his radio. The inmate is ripped apart by the xenomorph, she spots the other inmate fleeing, so she stings him with her stinger. She walks up to the stuned inmate and finishes him off with a headbite from her innerjaws. The guard turns around to the xenomorph leap at him. She plunges her claws into his shoulders while landing her feet on to his chest. Blood spews from the guard’s mouth as the xenomorph crushes his skull with her clawed hands.

Two more guards swing around the corner, they spot the xenomorph and begin to open fire at her. She bolts behind some crates. She swings her tail to knock the top crate on to one of the guards. She quickly charges at the lone guard, knocking his Kramer Assault Rifle out of his hands. The xenomorph stings the guard, paralyzing him. She drags the paralized guard back into the animal pen. She drops him before making her way to the guard under the crate, she paralizes him as well before dragging him back. She rips apart and digests the dead inmates and guards, reusing their biomass into the basis for its makeshift resin nest inside the animal pen. Cocooning the two guards. She crawls over one of the guards, she just finished “feeding” him a mutagen substance. The guard’s body slowly begins to shrink, his skin darkens and his extremities begin to merge. The other guard too weak to scream watches in horror as his partner steadily grows bloated. 

“Bad weather for recon” said one of the guards, the gate behind suddenly opened up. A tail swings around from the opening door to sting the guard, he falls to the ground paralized. The xenomorph retracts its tail before attacking the guard’s partner. She crushes his head with her claws.

“Get back to work” A guard shouts at two technicians leaving a bar. The drone leaps down from her perch as she headbites the guard. The technians run for their lives as the drone turns to them. The two technicians retreated into the alley where the creature left, they were nothing but dead guards and inmates lying lifeless on the ground. The drone captures the two technians, cocooning them into the animal pen nest. The two guards cocooned from earlier have been turned into ovomorphs. The xenomorphs encases the two technicians in resin.

A lander flies down into the starport. The technicians quickly spot the carnage left behind by the xenomorph. The technicians discovered the nest. The ovomorphs had already hatched, several people were cocooned inside the animal pen. The drone sneaks up on the new arrivals, they soon join the cocooned technicians and guards. 

The drone wanders off to search for more hosts. The gate opens for a truck, the drone leaps onto the truck, she smashes the windshield pulling its driver out of his seat before tossing him on to the floor. A guard quickly leaves his post to investigate, the drone turns around quickly to avoid the guard's gun fire. The guard accidentally hits the driver instead, “Shit” he curses. Xenomorph leaps on to the wall, climbing across its surface before leaping on to the guard. She smashes the guard’s face into the frame of the truck. She hears a technician gasp in fright, she spins her skeletal biomechanical frame around. The lab technician runs into the facility, forgetting to close the door. The drone leaps towards the door, slipping through the doorway as she makes her way to the technician. Curiously the facility defense systems did not turn on to eliminate her as she makes her way down the corridor.

A guard was taken by surprise by her presence, she grabs the guard by the head, she fires her inner jaws into his skull. The guard's body is dropped to the floor, dead. She enters another animal pen, the frightened technician screams as she bolts past her colleague studying the Lv-1201 bug. The drone approaches the biologist studying the bugs.

“Is that you, Stone?” He stood annoyed by the women’s screaming only to come face to face with the alien. The xenomorph stings him with her tail. His body collapses paralizyed on the floor. She raised her massive head, she noticed there was an elevated area leading to the next room. She leaps to the raised area. She comes up to a room full of scientists and a single guard.

“Wow, we got a complete shipment for a change. In the morning I want you to prep the new hosts.. What the?” The scientists noticed the xenomorph eating the guard. The xenomorph turns towards the scientists, her teeth dripping with the guard’s blood. She slowly approaches the scientists, drool dripping from her jaws. Two guards arrive a few minutes later only to find the scientists and guards outside were all gone. They were brought into the ceiling where the Drone had made into the new nest made from the dead guard. The drone planned on coming back for the two guards below.

Weyland Yutani security command, it was a dark room filled with computer monitors everywhere. The security technicians watch from afar of the chaos unraveling in the Primary Operations Complex. They see the two guards looking confused as they search the laboratory, one of the guards heads back down to the animal pens while the other is suddenly pulled up into the ceiling, dropping his gun. The other guard returns, he bends to pick up his friend’s rifle, it was now covered in slime.

“Commander” asked one of the security technicians.

“What is it?” Liam Hadden answered.

“We’ve got a problem” the technician reported.

Two technicians were talking in the chow hall eating chow. Eating spaghetti, drinking mountain dew and just having ordered some bread sticks and a large pepperoni pizza.

“Seen Pete around? He hasn’t reported in” said one of the personnel.

“Probably sleeping it off. I think Carson’s covering for him” replied the other.

“You’ve seen him?”

“Nope”

“You run into either one of them, let ‘em know I’m looking for them”

“Sure thing”

“I just talked to Markinson. Something got into the animal labs, ripped the place up” 

“He, report it yet..”

The drone crawls down from the ceiling into the chow hall. She overpowers the personnel easily. They were valuable alive then dead as she began to drag them back to her second nest. Two guards ran down the stairs and began open fire on her. She drops her prey, ensuring their survival for the time being. She leaps across the chow hall ceiling before leaping at one of the guards. She headbites the first guard out of spite before impaling the second guard with her tail. She bolts up the stairs, she impales a maintenance technician before sneaking off into the air duct. It leads across a caged catwalk leading into the next complex facility.

“Where’s that damn containment team” two guards were guarding a control terminal linked to the specimen rooms. They could hear the screams of personnel getting ripped outside. The Drone breaks through the door and enters the control room. She swiftly kills one of the guards via impalement, the surviving guard was in too much shock to move from his spot. The Drone finishes him off with a headbite. She senses the electronics radiating from the terminal, her vision was murky but she was able to see what was contained in the containers and she was able to sense their minds via the mind link all xenomorphs share. She destroyed the terminals, power was no longer being supplied to the stasis field in the tanks. The xenomorph warriors awaken from their slumber as they break free of the tanks. The warriors tear through the doors dividing them from the plethora of hosts and prey.

Warning. Xenomorph specimen container fail safes overridden

The computer blared its warning. It fell on death’s ears as the xenomorphs began to spread. The drone ran into the security room after the security team was dealt with by the much stronger warriors. The drone slips into the security post 4.

“Containment team. Report to the Vehicle Maintenance Bay. Condition 3” the security guard in charge ordered before getting impaled by the Drone. The warrior rushed in to take the civilian back to the nest. The Drone ran up ahead of her sisters. She saw a man dressed in the APE suit, a heavy armor resistant to intense heat. 

“We got her! Secure those exits! Let’s burn her out!” the APE troops began spraying napalm at the xenomorph. The drone is repelled by the fire, she retreats out of pure self preservation. The APE continued to fire the jet of fire, backing her into a corner. The APE trooper is ambushed by the Warriors from the security post. 

“Man down! Target is loose! Cut her off in the maintenance bay!” The warriors find the other two APE troopers but they are set alight. They fall to the ground breathing in pain. The Drone bolted towards the APE troopers, she impaled the closest one with her tail. She leaps on to the last one and delivers a headbite into his helmet. There was nothing she could do for the warriors, however she knew the nests built earlier were probably teaming with young drones.

“Should we notify Rykov?” asked the security technician. The monitors display xenomorphs attacking personnel across the security feeds; Science and maintenance technicians fleeing for their lives. Security guards being ripped apart and civilians being dragged off to who knows where. Captain Blanley and his guards have barricaded a hallway while protecting the civilian personnel from any xenomorph that happened upon them.

“Sure, if you want to lose your bonus and get transferred to perimeter duty” Commander Liam Hadden replied sarcastically.

“What if we need firepower support, sir?” the security technician asked.

“Rrrr, Let’s not overreact. I figure we’re probably dealing with a single contagion. This isn’t the first time of those bastards has got out of it’s cage” Commander Hadden rationalizes.

“If the Primary Operations Complex goes down, the Pods will be isolated. We’re their communication link” the technician counters, his tone a hint with panic.

“Son, the POC isn’t being overrun,” Commander Hadden was getting annoyed while downplaying the xenomorph attack’s severity. “Besides, Rykov can’t reach us for three hours, at least,” he added.

Blanley and his men continued to fire upon the xenomorphs. The aliens retreated for now. Blanley and his men sigh as they check their ammo supplies. 

One problem with this fan theory, the Last Engineer was 2000 years old! They engineered humanity after all. Humans nailed their ambassador Jesus to a cross. Entire ancient earth cultures were influenced by them by imprinting the image of gods in our psyche. Also the engineer language is the basis of European language! So how could 21st-22nd century humans create beings that existed long before we developed synthetic life? hmm?

Also in a deleted scene the last Engineer only attacked David because Mr. Weyland demanded immortality, David was only acting as a translator so the Engineer could understand Weyland's questions. The engineer attacked david because he felt insulted by his presence that their creation (humans) would make creations of their own (androids)

I wish this series stop being so human centric, why must everything go back to humanity? I thought this was ALIEN, not Humans playing God or Humans achieving immortality! I mean it was okay with Prometheus since it was called Prometheus and not ALIEN so it could focus on other aspects of the alien universe but when you use the ALIEN title, it should be about the Xenomorph front and center

Thoughts_Dreams (i hope this is how i reply to someone). Thank you for your kind words!

I don't yet know many things about the og movies, but i have some theories how Dr Shaw -as David said- was the perfect specimen:)

Why do film-makers talk in riddles?

Great find, I've front paged this for you! Thanks for sharing!

As per his comments however, it sounds like he'll be taking the franchise of the beaten path. Not really a fan of the transhuman angle and cyborgs. I thought Synthetics were enough, personally. I just hope this series doesn't derail the essence of what makes the Alien franchise so great and mysterious. I get what he's trying to do... I just remain very skeptical.

I don't really care about the human story aspect, It could be a xenomorph centered story and I would still watch it. I actually have no problems with David as a character, I actually like the idea that the protagonist is an android. Because organic protagonists are overrated and being human is overrated.

“I'm beginning to get annoyed with all these androids, I like Ash and Bishop and even David, somewhat but ALIEN is about aliens, not androids!” 

Me too, that's why I didn't give a single damn about Raised By Wolves, androids doing this and that, whatever. Ash and Bishop worked because they were well-done characters, but it was more about the human journey and the company sacrificing people to get what they wanted, it wasn't about androids doing whatever. They had a good balance because the androids were there and were interesting, but it wasn't about them.

The prequel-journey turned somewhat into poop because it became all about David. Trying new things in the franchise is welcome since it has been around for a while but don't forget that it's a human thing, don't let it be taken over by androids. I would  be as disappointed if it would be shown in the end that the franchise has been about toasters (Bishop-reference) as much as it would be to turn the prequels into being all about David. Hopefully the TV-series will avoid the mistakes that the prequels did. You got to have people that understand what the series is about and that care about it. To have it, being good-looking and having ideas isn't enough. I'm way more interested in this TV-show than the prequels. We haven't gotten anything satisfying since 1992 the way I look at it. Some people would say since 1986, but it's all opinions. Hopefully we'll get something that's well-done this time.

I'm beginning to get annoyed with all these androids, I like Ash and Bishop and even David, somewhat but ALIEN is about aliens, not androids!

The only reason why we had androids in the first place was from a left over piece of the original script of MUTHER being antagonistic.

Bishop existed for Ripley to get over her dislike of androids.

Both Ash and Bishop had a strange attraction to the alien, before Prometheus I was thought of the xenomorphs as the space jockey's versions of Ash and Bishop?

Call's existence... didn't make much sense to me since she lacked Ash, Bishop, and now David's xenomorph obsession.

OCT 07, 2017

Ridley Scott was recently a guest on the Empire podcast, since he serves as a producer on Blade Runner 2049. During the course of the conversation, the subject of his next proposed Alien prequel came up and he revealed a little bit about it, without giving away too much. Likely to the chagrin of many fans, he says the next movie will focus more on androids and A.I, as opposed to Xenomorphs. Here's what he had to say about the Alien: Covenant sequel.

"I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.'s. The world that the AI might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one."

I'm pretty sure that ALIENS established the whole QUEEN CASTE because WITHOUT the movie ALIENS, there would be NO QUEEN.

That's kind of interesting, who's to say that an alien-queen has to be what we saw in Aliens? With the black goo it can take different turns. At least it makes Shaw being useful for something. :D

Stick around, it's fun to have new members here.

CHAPTER 6: AWAKENING

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Zeta site Ruins, stasis chamber.

Date: September 22nd, 2230. 7:32 AM.

Yo’kainde slowly awakens, he clicks his mandibles to increase blood flow in them. He spots a dead facehugger lying on his chest, quickly throws the lifeless creature off of himself, kicking it to the corner before rising to his feet, confused. He struggles to remember why he was here. He spots several kainde amedha eggs, just waiting to release its progeny on an unsuspecting victim. Yo’kainde looks around at the ribbed-like structure of the mala’kak egg chamber. He turned his gaze at the now broken ladder, it was of yautja design. He remembers now, he was sent to turn the stasis chamber back on, the kainde amedha were overrunning their hunting colony. The ground shook furiously as chunks of the ceiling started falling down around him. 

He grabs his combi-stick, the eggs remain closed. The yautja spots a massive whole at the side of the egg chamber. He sprinted towards the cavern not wanting to chance awakening the eggs. He moves about the tunnels blindly without his biomask; he can’t easily see a kainde amedha should it attack him here and now. He reaches an opening, he is back in the main chamber but from a higher vantage point. He spots something moving down below… its shape resembled an oomen. 

“An oomen? Why is it here?” Yo’kainde remembered hunting these creatures on a planet called Earth. They shouldn’t have the capability to achieve star flight but here is one now standing and waiting for something to happen. He spots the oomen holding something, he couldn’t make it out. 

The chamber shakes again, the entrance where the slumbering xenomorphs were guarding was closed off. The boulder crushed the sleeping biomechanical horrors into a pool of acid. Dunya drops the metal mask as she runs across the platform for the slow falling artifact.

“Dunya, what has happened?” Rykov asked, his voice slightly raised.

“I think I’m in trouble. It looks like turning off the artifact has caused a cascade of other failures. The entrance to the chamber has collapsed” Dunya reported.

“Can you find another way out?” Rykov asked.

“There are other exits. Hopefully, one will lead to the surface” Dunya replied.

“Then waste no time. Take the Artifact and radio when you’re out. We’ll have a team on stand-by” Rykov ordered. 

“I’m on it,” Dunya removes the artifact from its prong pedestal, she removes her backpack as she stuffs the artifact in it. She was now ready to leave this place. She quickly walked over to the offline synthetics, there was a flamethrower on the ground. She spots a rock tumbling towards her, she briefly looks up at the ceiling, she swore she saw something moving. 

Yo’kainde activates his cloak as he carefully makes his way down to the platform. He sees the oomen fleeing into one of the yautja built hallways. He kneels over to grab the mask, deep scratch marks are etched into the biomask. Yo’kainde remembers, a kainde amedha ripped this biomask from his face what felt like hours ago. He felt its aged surface. 

Yo’kainde places the biomask over his face, he carefully plugs in his power chords into the mask. It comes to life, he is surprised by the date. It's been 500 years since he’s been in stasis. That would explain the sudden presence of the oomens, they must have become a space faring species during that time, he rationalized. His vision mode was set to red: electrovision. He spots several vulture-headed creatures stare at him from behind the structures. Yo’kainde remembers these creatures, they were the ancient mala’kak’s servants, programmed to constantly upkeep their biomachines and biomechanical structures in prime conditions. 

They watch the yautja from afar, their massive compound eyes never seem to blink. Three kainde amedha warriors sneak up on the vulture heads however they seem to ignore the vulture heads. Their only interest was Yo’kainde. The warriors hesitate attacking the yautja, sensing their offspring gestating inside the predator. Yo’kainde took advantage of their hesitation to impale the closest warrior in the chest with his combi-stick. He pulls out his combi-stick to bifurcate the next one. The last one he impales in the neck, before slicing its head off. He bolts towards the yautja halls where the oomen had retreated. 

Dunya ran down the copper metal walls, the grates glowed with copper lighting. She fires a jet of flame down the increasingly dark corridor. She passes through the first copper door into a room covered in dark metal walls with copper light panels decorating their surface. She fires another jet of flame down the dark corridor, she eventually reaches the second copper door, she hears something big approaching. She sprints down the hall as she passes through a third copper door and quickly makes her way to a lift.

Yo’kainde spots something moving across the cage walkway above him, it was the oomen female. He switches to body heat vision, the tri dots lock on to the oomen. Yo’kainde’s aim is thrown off. A kainde amedha wrestles the yautja to the floor. The plasma caster fires, the blast throws Dunya off her feet. She slowly pulls herself up, her arm is now injured, blood trickled down her arm as she continues down the corridor. She fires a jet of flame into the dark, she briefly sees statues of large humanoids wearing the mask she found earlier. A xenomorph runner is hit by the flame, it bolts off into the dark. Dunya managed to reach a light filled room with an orange mist blanketing the floor. She could hear the xenomorphs moving about, she must keep out of their sight. A whole pack of warriors and runners passed her by from an adjacent corridor; fortunately their attention was elsewhere. Dunya carefully guided herself around the corridor walls until she found herself on the surface. The copper walls, ceiling and floors gave way to canyon rock, green skies and grass.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Zeta site Ruins, surface.

Date: September 22nd, 2230. 9:34 AM.

“General Rykov, I've reached the surface,” Dunya reported.

“We’ve located you. There’s an APC just a few clicks away. They’re turning on their transponder now. You should get the barring on them with your motion tracker” Rykov informed

“Yes, sir. I’ll see you at the pods” Dunya vowed, she thought of Dimitri. She makes her way into the wilderness. Dunya dashes across the muddy plain, as a pack of xenomorphs follows her. She managed to scare a herd of buhlaghs into stampeding. The xenomorphs keep their distance from the stampede. Dunya passes through a forest of white barked trees, a large chameleon leaps out at her from a bush. It beats its chest in a gorilla-like fashion to intimidate Dunya. A gunshot was heard, the gorilla-like chameleon retreated from Dunya’s sight.

There she saw an APC surrounded with Iron bear Mercs. Dunya spotted Dimitri among her fellow Mercenaries. Dunya sprinted over to embrace him. Dimitri was filled with joy as he embraced her too.

“Major” Lieutenant Xavier of the Weyland-Yutani Security Corps salutes her. Dunya ignores him as she enters the APC with Dimitri. The APC was almost on its way back to the POC when she suddenly got off her seat. She entered the APC cockpit. A Combat Synth was driving, she relaxed know she could make that important call.

“I have the artifact, General,” Dunya reports.

“Excellent work, Dunya. Ivan will be waiting when you arrive at Pod 5. He will handle it from here” General Rykov transmitted from his comms room.

“As you say, sir” Dunya replied, she looked behind herself, “Sir?”

“Yes, major?” Rykov replied.

“Zeta site. It was just as you suspected. It’s not purely Engineer technology. Someone or something else has been there before us” Dunya added.

“Hmmph. I'll expect a full report tomorrow. No details are to be left out” Rykov’s interests were piqued by Dunya's statement.

“Yes, sir. Genera,” Dunya complied.

The APC finally arrives at the Forward Observation Pods. Dunya, Dimitri and Xavier walk up to the central pod elevator lift. The lift takes them into the belly of the main pod. 

The engineer artifact was taken by the scientists before switching hands to the maintenance boys to be placed in storage. The crate was placed on the top shelf by a forklift. Rykov stares at the crate containing the artifact from behind the glass pane. He nods his head. The buyer will be pleased they have secured such a valuable and rare find. However they were ignorant of its true value and purpose. Rykove leaves the room, he needs to make funeral arrangements for Serge and Becker. 

Locale: Lv-1201, Forward Observation Pod - water pumping station.

Date: September 22nd, 2230. 11:16 AM.

Yo’kainde had made his way to the Pod’s water pumping station. From there he could walk along the roof of the passageway to Pod 5. The ancient Yautja leaps from the water pumping station onto the glass catwalk. He reaches a maintenance hatch. He pulls the hatch off its hinges and tosses it down the ravine.

Locale: Lv-1201, Forward Observation Pod - ground floor.

Date: September 22nd, 2230. 11:19 AM.

Two Weyland-Yutani security guards guard a large metal crate. One guard of african descent named Larry, the other of european descent named Jerry.

“Damn, I hate pulling lift duty,” Jerry loathed his job.

“You and me both,” Larry agreed.

“Hey… you mind if I take a smoke” Jerry asked his coworker.

“You can do whatever you want, Jerry. Just make sure you do it where i can smell it” Larry added.

“Yeah, yeah… all right. I’ll be back in a minute” Jerry leaves his post for a quick smoke.

“Hey Jerry…” Larry asked to catch his friend's attention.

 “Yeah?” Jerry replied.

“Be careful… those things'll kill ya” Larry voiced his concerns over his coworker’s smoking habits. 

“Heh,” Jerry chuckled. He moves further out from the supply crates for some privacy. He pulls out his cigarette, he lights the tip and takes in a single puff when the maintenance hatch crushes him like a bug.

“What the…” Larry was startled by the commotion before realizing his coworker Jerry is more than likely dead. The maintenance hatch displayed NO SMOKING in big bold letters on the turned up underside. 

The engineer artifact started to glow, an energy field slowly envelops the fat disk-shaped device, the crate containing the artifact began to suffer from multiple stress fractures before finally giving in. The crate exploded into shrapnel by the artifact’s gravity manipulation abilities. The artifact called out to the xenomorphs, the necranuhm. The xenomorphs obeyed, the runners grew more agitated. 

The xenomorphs started having seizure-like fits, clawing at the cage doors. Soon the runners accidentally injure themselves, their acidic blood began eating at the cages and the floor surrounding it. The xenomorphs break free of their containment. The artifact began to emit beyond the pods, drawing xenomorphs from the outside to Pod 5, then it emits a signal into space.

Dimitri and Dunya made it back to their quarters. Hoping to continue what they started last night.

Dimitri however was curious of what happened on Dunya’s last mission.

“So what happened, my love? I’ve heard Becker and Serge didn’t make it”

“Eisenberg’s combat synthetics were ahead of us, the xenomorphs swarmed us. I barely made it out alive, I was so scared. But then I found myself in the engineer ruins, the xenomorphs for some reason did not want to enter that place” Dunya explained.

“Perhaps it's just the room they were afraid of,” Dimitri speculated.

“Do you hear what you’re saying? They aren’t afraid of anything” Dunya recalled.

“No. Not normally” Dimitri added.

“Dunya, were showing a breach at the water walk. Xenomorphs have entered Pod 5” Rykov’s voice booms over the intercom.

“There is no response from the guards there, sir,’ said a female voice with a north american accent.

“Sir, you don’t think it has anything to do with the artifact?” Dunya asked.

“I don’t know yet, but I want you to go to storage C and get the artifact. It must be moved off of pod 5 and secured” Rykov ordered before asking “Is Dimitri there?” 

“Yes, sir,” Dimitri answered.

“Dimitri, I want you to meet Chekov at the water walk, on the double. Dunya, contact me the moment you have the artifact” Rykov orders.

“Yes, sir. General,” Dunya complied.

Dimitri sighs frustrated, “Another time, then?”

“Another time, love” Dunya also sighed in frustration.

The two mercenaries quickly arm themselves with their M41a1 Pulse Rifles before heading off to their posts. The sounds of xenomorphs hissing could be heard down the hallway. Weyland Yutani Security marches past the two iron bear mercs to suppress the flood of intruders.

Yo’kainde wrist computer picks up on the artifact’s signal, its warning the mala’kak. Yo’kainde cloaks as he enters the oomen stronghold. To Yo’kainde surprise the oomens have advanced quite a lot, the last time he hunted their kind they were still sailing in tall wooden ships and fought with crude gunpowder weapons. He spots two ceiling sentry guns, he quickly disabled the cannons before they could deployed. The alien hunter snuck around the oomens, not wishing to alert them for the time being. He finds a locked door, he interfaces his wrist computer with the exposed wires of the door panel.

Yo’kainde climbs down a ladder into a maintenance room being patrolled by three synthetic guards. Yo’kainde quickly dispatches the synthetic oomens with his combi-stick. The Yautja makes his way down to storage, he scans the cargo crates of any valuables. He detects some of the quadrupedal kainde amedha roaming around the animal crates. He wondered what the oomens would want with the kainde amedha, they make terrible pets. An aching pain stabs him like a sword, he quickly recovers. He stabs the kainde amedha with his combi-stick, before throwing it to the floor. He cuts away at its neck to claim its head. Another kainde amedha leaped out from the corner. He swung his combi-stick into its gut, sending the copperish-pink creature fumbling backwards. Yo’kainde looks at his wrist computer, the signal was getting stronger. He sneaks off into one of the adjacent cargo rooms. There he stood in a cramp room with several shelves full of large crates. He leapt onto the shelves before reaching the one with the artifact.  

The artifact was there exposed in the open, he does make note of the shrapnel that used to be its container. He grabs the mala’kak device, knowing full well should they return… he hears the sounds of doors opening and followed by rapid footsteps.

Yo’kainde flashed his fleshy dreadlocks as he turned around to see a glass pane with an ooman woman staring at him. Could it be the same oomen he was following? He laughs at her as he activates his cloak. Dunya was startled by the humanoid creature, it was wearing the scratched mask she found in the ruins.

“General,” Dunya established contact.

“Go ahead, Dunya,” Rykov acknowledged.

“The artifact… it is gone, sir” Dunya reported.

“Gone? What are you saying, Dunya? Someone took it?” Rykov asked.

“Something took it. Not a xenomorph, sir - something I’ve never seen before. It was standing there. And then it just… disappeared. The air seemed to shimmer where it had been standing” Dunya reported.

“Dunya, get out of there. Now!” Rykov suddenly raised his voice. What got the General scared all of a sudden? Dunya thought.

“But, General, it could not have taken the Artifact very far. I could follow it with the motion tracker” Dunya insisted.

“No! The artifact is of no importance now” Rykov shouted.

The walkways leading to Pod 2 and Pod 4 are detonated by combat synthetics. The ground shook as an explosion could be heard followed by the sounds of xenomorphs screaming from outside storage C, followed by heavy gunfire. 

“Dunya. Eisenberg’s men have blown the walks to Pod 2 and 4. Get down to the cargo lift. This is an order. We are evacuating the pod” Rkyov demanded.

“Yes sir, General” Dunya complied.

Dunya hears a sound behind her, it was Dimitri accompanied by Chekov, Martin Xavier and his Weyland Yutani security team. A runner wanders into the room, the security team blasts it apart with their pulse rifles. 

“Dunya, let's go,” Dimitri shouted. Dunya nodded. They doubled time out of the hallway as they climbed out of Storage Area C. Another runner charges into the base of the ladder, it reared its head up at the security team and the mercs. The security guards aimed their pulse rifles downwards at the creature, the runner scurried away when the floors became riddled with bullet holes.

Dunya aimed her rifle up to see if any xenos were hiding in the maintenance shaft. She began climbing up the second ladder, Dimitri was next, then Chekov, then Xavier and the others. Dunya switches the airlock vent to open, it slowly uncoils like a stomach valve. In situations like this Dunya hated going into the vents but what choice do they have? Dimitri was also claustrophobic. But they must push on if they want to live through this. She opens the side hatch, she turns on her flashlight on her rifle to see if there was anything hiding in the adjacent shaft. There was nothing. She squeezed herself into the next maintenance shaft, now prone and vulnerable however Dimitri was behind her, offering her some peace of mind that he will guard her rear. She proceeds down the dark shaft as Chekov, then Xavier and his team now are in the same shaft. The security team began opening fire as the xenomorphs had followed them into the shaft. Dunya cleared the next few vents, she opened the vent where she discovered a ladder leading down a long maintenance shaft.

She climbs down the long ladder until she opens the final vent leading into a dark hallway. She and Dimitri scout the room, it was so far empty. They help Chekov out of the vent, then Xavier however out of eight of his men only three managed to come through the vent. Chekov quickly seals the maintenance vent. The xenomorph warriors hissed before turning around looking for another way in. Dunya leads the entourage down an adjacent hallway. A runner sprints up the stairs but is gunned down by the security team and mercs. The warriors began denting in a closed door. Dunya avoids the acidic blood of the runner as she and the others race down the stairs. The warriors finally burst open the locked door but the prey was gone.

An aching chest pain episode delayed him from reaching the communications. Yo’kainde spots two oomens patrolling down the corridor, he must get to communications.

The two guards swore they saw the walls bulge and moved, they heard communication’s door close. Yo’kainde wired his wrist computer into the primitive oomen computers.

Pod 5 communications

Landline uplink acquired.

Connecting to POC subspace array.

Coordinates accepted.

Transmitting.

A progress bar appears on the screen. The aching pain grew unbearable for Yo’kainde to bear. His roars alert the two guards outside, a creature violently rips its way out of the yautja’s sternum. Green blood splats on all of the computer monitors. The predalien chestburster covered in green blood slithered behind one of the computing consoles as the two guards entered the room.

“What the…” Carter, the first security guard, doubled back seeing the big alien hunter laying dead in one of the swivel chairs. Mark, the other guard, stood watching the corridors from inside. 

“Sarge, do you copy?” Carter radio-in, staring at the dead yautja. 

“Go ahead, Carter,” said his security sergeant.

“Looks like I found the source of that unauthorized broadcast” Carter reported.

“And? Who was it?” the security sergeant asked.

“Uh… more like WHAT is it, sir. It’s not human, but it’s dead. Looks like it’s been chest bursted. And it's holding some sort of object”

“Damn… Don’t touch anything. I’ll get a decon team up there and try to raise Rykov. You just get back here, ASAP. There’s no telling if there’s more of those things around here” the sergeant replied.

“You got it,” Carter replied, nodding his head to Mark to move out. They make their way down the white corridor and are soon ambushed by a xenomorph warrior. 

Locale: Lv-1201, Pod 5, Communications Room

Date: September 22nd, 2230. 12:05 PM.

The predalien chestburster slithers into a nearby air vent, to hide from the decon team. Then it wiggles its way under the floorboard before slithering its way into the air duct. It slips its way out of the ducts into the men’s room. A lone guard spots the chestburster but before he could react a xenomorph warrior drops down from the ceiling to deal with him. The chestburster makes it to the toilets where another warrior rips its way out of the air vent to pull an unsuspecting guard off the toilet, cramming his body into the vent.

The other warrior grabs the chestburster, she carries the infant xenomorph to a food source. She snarls at the other xenomorphs, the runners understood as they seek out any threats in the vicinity while the other warriors and drones accompany her. The xenomorph pack arrives at a morgue, human corpses lying on several tables. The warrior releases the chestburster onto one of the dead bodies. 

Dunya, Dimitri, Chekov, and Xavier had arrived at the Pod 5 elevator. They had lost the other three security guards when escaping from a praetorian; their sacrifices allowed the others to reach the elevator. 

There Rykov, Popov, Ivan and some Combat Synthetics were getting the turrets ready inside of the main cargo lift bay. 

“I want the turrets armed for anything - inside or outside the perimeter - that doesn’t respond to IFF” Rykov ordered Popov.

“There will be hell to pay if one of the technical staff forgets his badge” Popov stated.

“We’ll worry about that IF it happens. For now -” Rykov then spots Dunya, Dimitri, Chekov and Martin Xavier.

“Dunya, Dimitri and Chekov” Rykov ignores Martin’s presence, “Good, were leaving the pod”

“Yes, sir. What about the other personnel? Are they evacuated?” Dunya asks.

“No. We’ll reassess once we're off the pod” Rykov replied.

“Looks like our scientist friends will be bringing water up the lift from now on. Rykov told Eisenberg connecting to the pumping station was a risk. As usual, he would not listen” Dunya tells Dimitri.

“Sounds like someone I know…”Dimitri snarks.

“Lucky for you. Now let’s get the hell off this pod. I have a promise to keep” Dunya flirts.

“Yes, Ma’am” Dimitri smiles. The lift lowers them to the ground floor outside.

Locale: Lv-1201, Pod 5, Morgue.

Date: September 23nd, 2230. 3:28 AM.

Achestburster skin lies in the middle of the room. A security guard rushed into the morgue as the xenomorphs had finished off his unit.

“Olmy?! Neun?! This is Winter. Anyone copy?” Winter asked into his radio, “Damnit. Beta team, this gamma. Copy” he looked around the morgue growing more frightened.

“Beta here, go ahead” Finally someone responded to Winter’s pleas. 

“We’ve taken heavy casualties. I’m holed up in the morgue, but the halls are crawling. Requesting assistance. Over” Winter requested.

“Roger. We’re just below you. ETA 60 seconds” Beta team leader response.

“Shit. Make it 30 and I might still be breathing” Winter demanded.

“Were on it” Beta team leader replies.

“I shoulda taken mom’s advice and been a programmer,” Winter mutters to himself. Winter heard a sound coming from the back of the room. He spots a huge xenomorph, larger than a warrior but shorter than a praetorian. Its biomechanical carapace was light tan rather than the typical gunmetal grey of a typical xenomorph. It sported a set of mandibles and a mane of segmented dreadlocks it inherited from its yautja host.

The predalien now fully grown had molted from its chestburster body hours ago. It flares its segmented dreadlocks and its mandibles at Winter. He screams as he unloads a full clip into the Predalien. Its carapace deflects some of the bullets while the other bullets barely penetrate its thick body armor.

“Holy shit” Winter cusses.

With a smack of her tail, Winter is sent flying into a wall. She leaps down on to the guard, grabbing him by the head. She plunges her clawed hand deep into his back while pulling out his spine and skull.

Beta team arrives moments later, the predalien smacks her tail against the security guards. She impales her mandibles into the beta team leader, her teeth sinks into his head, blood pours all over his face. The predalien finishes him off with a hard crunch. The guards' screams are heard down the hallway.

Popov and Ivan’s team of combat synthetics gun down several xenomorph runners and drones and a few warriors. One of the warriors was carrying the engineer artifact. 

“Damn it Richter. The pod is about to go” Ivan cursed.

“I’ve got it. Let's get the hell out of here” Richter demanded.

“Chekov, do you copy? Chekov” Popov tries to radio in Chekov.

“Go ahead,” Chekov finally responded.

“I can’t raise Rykov. There is some kind of interference here,” Popov transmitted.

“You are barely audible here,” Chekov commented.

“Tell Rykov we have the Artifact,” Popov reported.

“Oh, man. not again” Richter grows increasingly weary of the xenomorphs hissing growing louder.

“…and we are on our way down to the extraction point,” Popov reported.

“Make it fast. The first charges will be going off any second by now” Chekov reminded him.

“Shit everybody out! Double time it to the lines” Popov demanded.

“You don’t have to ask me twice, baby” Richter and Popov both bolted onwards to the exit.

Date: September 23rd, 2230. 7:02 PM.

Dunya, Rykov, Dimitri, Popov, Ivan, Xavier, Eisenberg and the remaining security, scientists, and Iron Bear mercenaries stare up at the Pods.

“There is no  way to save it, General?” Dunya asks.

“We have done all we can. Once the lift broke away, we lost all hope of regaining the pod. We must cut our losses before the xenomorphs find a way to spread to the other pods” Rykov explained.

“And what of the - creature - I saw?” Dunya asks.

There was a long pause, Dr. Eisenberg briefly turned his gaze to Dunya.

“It would seem that… It found what it was looking for,” Rykov speculated. 

“What about those remaining in the pod?” Dunya asks.

Eisenberg walked between Dunya and Rykov, “They are already dead. Sever the pod, General” Dr. Eisenberg demanded.

The charges began detonating across Pod 5. The predalien led some of the xenomorphs outside of Pod 5 as they leapt onto the scaffolding metal support beams. Pod 5 falls from its severed supports as it crashes into the ground below sealing any remaining xenomorphs, any unfortunate scientist, guard, or merc and The Artifact along with it.

“How are we going to explain to the buyer that we lost the artifact?” Ivan Hushvatov asked Rykov.

“By tying loose ends, Ivan” Rykov looked at Captain Martin Xavier, he gave Ivan a commanding look. Ivan understoods what General Rykov wants as he approaches the Guard captain.

“Captain Xavier…was it? I’ve heard Markinson talk about you. You were there when Dunya recovered the Artifact, is this correct?” Ivan asked.

“Yes,” Xavier replied.

 “You were also in charge of guarding its transfer to Storage C, is this correct as well?” Ivan’s tone grew deeper.

“Yes, but wait a minute, are you accusing me of something?” Xavier doesn’t like what Ivan is about to imply.

“The evidence is already against you, Rykov has already searched your quarters and found evidence of your collusion with Chigusa Corporation” Ivan accused.

“Wait, that can’t be true, that’s a lie! I would never betray the Company for Chigusa!” Xavier snarls in protest. He was innocent but the Iron Bears needed an escape goat. 

“Protest all you like, Martin, it doesn’t change the facts…” He nods to his men to grab Martin Xavier by the arms. “What General Rykov says… It means truth” Ivan knocks Xavier unconscious. “Throw him in with the laborers at the Primary Operations Complex, that's an order from Rykov himself” the Iron Bears nodded to Ivan as they carry the unconscious man away.

The yautja’s transmission would eventually reach its fellow yautja in the neighboring Nodus Secundas system. While the artifact’s signal would eventually reach the Engineer homeworld.

CHAPTER 5: ZETA SITE

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Construction Site.

Date: June 12th, 2223

Dr. Arnaud Esienberg having survived his operation, went on to gain the funding he needed and returned to LV-1201 to overlook the construction of his greatest projects. Learning from the dormancy cycle on this planet he took many things into consideration.

“I want the Forward Observation Post here, we erect electric fences on the falls to prevent any xenomorph incursions from harming our personnel. The complex would be surrounded by a massive wall, the only way in is through a series of sally ports with robust security sentries placed within the ceilings. Next is the construction of our labs, this gorge will do nicely. We will construct five observation pods suspended in a series of cables and support structures along the canyon walls. Only way inside the FOP is through a suspended cable elevator, the ground region will be surrounded by an electric perimeter fence with strategic sentry cannons placed around the lift operations,” Eisenberg instructed.

“Sir we will need a security force to maintain both the POC and the FOPs” Project Manager Jason Dwitzes suggested.

“Weyland-Yutani Security Corps will handle most of the facilities nicely but I will need more additional protection aside from basic security and combat synthetics,” Eisenberg agreed. “I will need a personal army to carry out our goals” The senior project manager added.

“What do you have in mind, sir?” Jason asks.

“Mercenary groups, give me a list of the best mercenary companies” Eisenberg demanded.

“Sir, no need. The Iron Bear Mercenaries are the best mercenary company, out there sir,” Jason already had his bases covered.

“But don’t they usually operate in UPP space?” Eisenberg asked.

“Usually, but they are one of the few mercenary companies willing to operate beyond frontier space,” Jason rest assured, 

“I’ll take them into consideration,” Eisenberg concluded.

“Sir, there is a new transfer, a Kenji Maurita, geneticists,” Jason added.

“Yes, a promising mind indeed. Place him in the advanced genetics laboratory, I wish to see his amazing talents for myself” Dr. Eisenberg ordered.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pods

Date: August 21, 2229

After spending years in the Advanced genetics laboratory. Kenji was ordered to perform human genetic modifications to the inmates and on occasions sent out to the zeta site to study the xenomorphs and came very close to losing his life. He had since published his theories on xenomorph genetic hive memory.

“I hate this place,” Kenji said to his coworker, Shinji.

“I know what you mean,” Shinji nodded.

“I have requested a transfer back to gateway station. I’m tired of experimenting on inmates… on another human being!” A letter is swiped beneath his quarter’s door. Kenji walks over and picks up the letter while holding it, From: A Eisenberg. To: Administration. he opens it up, “I regret to inform you that I cannot approve Dr. Maurita’s transfer back to gateway. Due to his extremely time-sensitive research, he has elected to press on with his current duties… dude what the fuck” Kenji stared at the letter in disbelief.

“What are you going to do Kenji?” Shinji asked.

“I’m going to have a talk with Dr. Eisenberg about this!” Kenji gripped the letter tightly.

 Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Primary Operations Complex Administration

Date: October 9, 2229

Mr. Burns sighs as the refrigerator power problem hasn’t been resolved. The butter is completely melted and everything is spoiled. 

Esienberg was greeting the new personnel that had arrived from the supply ship. He reads the new personnel roster, Tomiko, Kenji’s sister, was among them.

“Tomiko, was it?” Eisenberg asked for confirmation.

“Yes, that's me,” Tomiko replied.

“We are saddened by the loss of your brother Kenji Maurita, he was a brilliant scientist, wise beyond his years” said Eisenberg.

Tomiko broke down sobbing at the loss of her brother, she knew he had a dangerous job having to deal with the xenomorphs but to have it confirmed so suddenly when she arrived.

“How did he die?” Tomiko asked.

“I am not at liberty to discuss the details, however please know that it was an accident” Eisenberg insisted. 

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pods

Date: October 2nd, 2230.

When a young medical doctor Betheny Clements arrived at the artifact laboratory, she overheard the scientists accusing Dr. Adam Post for stealing the artifacts from his labs. She was a close friend of Dr. Post and knew he could never do such a thing. 

“Hey what's going on?” She attempts to but-in but Dr. Martin Sharpe grabs her by the arm and pulls her to the side.

“Don’t get involved, not yet,” Dr. Sharpe tells her.

“What’s going in there? Dr. Post is not a thief!”

“I know, I’ve read your letter. Don’t do anything stupid, I don’t want what happened to Dr. Maurita happen to you too”

“Thanks for the concern but I am not afraid of Dr. Eisenberg”

“Just be careful,”

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pods, Eisenberg’s Office

Date: October 2nd, 2230.

Dr. Clements walks into Eisenberg’s office. Eisernberg turns around in his chair, surprised to see the young doctor in his office.

“What’s the meaning of this? You don’t have an appointment, leave before I call security” Dr. Eisenberg demanded.

“He is not a thief! Dr. Adam Post is not a thief, It is Rykov, I am sure of it”

“General Rykov is a valuable member of my security team, now please leave before I call security!” Eisenberg squinted his eyes at Clements, she left on her own accord. Eisenberg fusiosly taps at his computer console, “Ms. Kazama, I would like to call Dr. Sharpe”

“Calling Dr. Sharpe, he is on line 5” Eisenberg secretary replies.

“Yes?” Dr. Sharpe answers.

“Sharpe, your friend Dr. Clements barge in my office today. She misunderstands rykov’s importance and cost. A policeman makes a fine bodyguard, unless you plan to rob a bank - and good bodyguards must be paid with one currency or the other. Control your team, or I will!”

“It won’t happen again, Dr. Eisenberg,” Dr. Sharpe complied.

“Good,” Dr. Eisenberg concludes.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pods, Eisenberg’s Office

Date: October 3rd, 2230.

“Sir, Mr. Bishop wishes to speak with you,” said Eisenberg’s secretary.

“Very well I’ll take the call in my office” Eisenberg has the call transferred to his office, “Dr. Micheal Bishop, it's a pleasure to finally speak with you”

“How are things down there, Dr. Eisenberg,” An older man materialized on the screen. He looks like a spitting image of Lance Henriksen.

“Everything is…stable. The xenomorphs are manageable…”

“Damn it, Eisenberg! Stop beating around the bush! I have several of my peers breathing down my neck, so don’t test my patience so tell me what is really going on down there? Have you made any progress on reverse engineering the Engineer’s technology?”

“We are getting close sir, the zeta ruins are hard to traverse with the xenomorphs heavily concentrated in that area”

“Here's a word of advice: Try harder,” Bishop glared at Eisenberg.

“Yes, Mr. Bishop”

“Now onto another matter, I want you to ship back Convict Rieser to gateway Station immediately, we wish to transfer him to the Io Mining facility”

“I’ll make the arrangements” Dr. Eisenberg.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pods, Facehugger containment room.

Date: October 4th, 2230.

Dr. Clements was still bitter over her conversation with Eisenberg, how could he defend a thug like Rykov? She wasn’t in the proper state of mind, she forgot to initialize the safeguard override system. A facehugger escapes from its container, it sneaks around the white cabinets filled with facehuggers in stasis. The klaxons went off but Dr. Clements was too distracted by the incident to realize something went wrong. She saw something scurry in her peripheral vision. She turns around as the facehugger springs off the wall, latching on to her face. 

Security quickly rushes in with Dr. Sharpe, they place her in cryo-stasis until they can figure out how to arrest the xenomorph lifecycle. They notified her family.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Forward Observation Pod 5

Date: September 21st, 2230. 7:06 PM

A white walled room decorated with furniture, a computer table, a large cubby whole bed and a shower unit. A russian man dressed in the Iron Bear Mercenary uniform laid in the bed while his girlfriend was taking a hot shower just a few feet away. The vidphone blared like a ringing telephone. The Mercenary answers the vidphone.

“Ah Dimitri. Have Dunya come to my office immediately. It is a matter of urgency,” a large russian male with short military style grey hair and bushy eyebrows appeared on its screen. 

“Yes sir, General Rykov” Dimitri saluted to the vidphone. He knew better than to question General Rykov. The large man disappears from the screen as it turns into a blank grey. Dimitri walks over to the showers where his precious Dunya was bathing, he quickly admires how beautiful her body is before remembering his orders, “Dun, that was the General. He wants to see you in his office right away”

“Oh?” Dunya replies.

“He says it's urgent,” Dimitri declares.

“Then it must be, my love. This will have to wait for another time” Dunya having canceled their private time. Dimitri sighs in disappointment but he hopes to get another chance later.

General Rykov stares out from his office window, watching the newly designed WY-612 Landers arriving and departing from the POC. The white blast doors bearing the Weyland-Yutani Logo slides open. A tall physically fit woman wearing an iron bear mercenary uniform walks through the archway sporting a bob haircut and piercing blue eyes, Major Dunya, she walks over to General Rykov awaiting his instructions.

“We have a buyer,” Rykov spoke suddenly.

“It’s about time,” Dunya replied sharply.

“Our precautions have made things proceed much more slowly than I had originally anticipated. It is unfortunate we had to wait before obtaining the Artifact, but it was necessary” General Rykov begins the briefing.

“And so this is our next step?” Dunya asked.

“You should get your gear together and leave tonight while the opportunity remains. When you arrive at Zeta site there will be no one but Iron Bears there to greet you” General Rykov continues the briefing.

“I assume the Iron Bears won’t be blamed for this breach?” Dunya wanted some assurances.

“Hmmph. Of course not. Ivan has taken care of the details. Once you're ready to go, meet Chekov in the cargo bay. He has one final piece of equipment you will be needing,” Rykov wraps up his briefing.

“Yes sir, General” Dunya turns around to make her leave.

“Dunya,” General Rykov calls out to her, not finished with her, “The artifact is several levels below the guard station and Eisenberg has already a team of synthetics attempting to retrieve it. Be careful, Dunya” Rykov concluded his briefing.

“Yes, general,” Dunya replied before leaving his office.

Locale: Lv-1201, Zeta Region, Zeta site

Date: September 21st, 2230. 11:40 PM

The howling winds echoed in between the canyon walls, Iron Bear Mercs gathered around a maintenance shed waiting for a certain female merc to show up so they could do their jobs and get back to the pods.

“Everything ready?” asked Becker, his voice carrying a thick Texan drawl.

“Yeah, Xavier will have quite a hangover in the morning. He might even think he stole the Artifact himself,” Serge reported.

“Good. I doubt the Major would approve of the General’s methods” Becker voiced his concerns.

“Hmmph… Well, she didn’t serve on korari, now did she?” Serge retorted.

“Yeah… and I’d stow it if I were you. You don’t want to see her pissed off” retorted Becker, “Major?” He finds himself saluting her.

“Is everything ready?” Dunya asked her two subordinates.

“Um… Yes, ma’am” Becker replied.

“Then let’s proceed. Becker, Serge, you’re with me. Popov, I want you here in the APC. Chances are we'll be coming out hot.”

“You’ve got it,” replied Popov.

Dunya, Becker and Serge rush into the guard station, weapons ready and the safeties off. The red emergency light gleamed ahead. Dunya’s motion tracker bleeps her movements as well as her comrade’s movements. They move through a large room with a ramp that slopes down to the lower floor, a xenomorph runner hiding behind a trash can. Their movements startle it awake as it slowly raises to its feet. 

“Open fire!” Dunya orders her men, the runner is engulfed in flames. Another runner type xenomorph emerges from the shadow then another and another. Dunya fires her Pulse Rifle, 90, rounds left. There are now only two runners left. Becker sets another runner alite with his flame thrower. Serge blasts away the last runner with his pulse rifle. The xenomorph’s blood melts away the floor grates, plunging their remains down a few levels.

“Tough bastards” Serge comments.

Dunya opens the door into the next room. The ceiling in the next room caves in as a drone lands on the floor. 82, rounds left. The drone retreats after being struck by the hail of bullets. Dunya nods her head for her men to survey the room. In the center of the room is an elevator leading down. Serge reads a PDA about someone dumb enough to read Eisenberg’s email. While Dunya walks over to a large yellow box with a handle. She pulls the lever, restoring power to the elevator. The elevator slowly starts to retract back to the top. The long powerful cable reeling the lift up, generates an uncomfortable amount of noise. Dunya presses the only button on the elevator, it reverses its function as it begins lowering the mercenaries down to the lower levels. The shaft walls were copper in color with bands of red lights ringing around the shaft ever so many feet. They reached the bottom of the shaft. It opens up into a massive cavern.

The three mercs walked down the stoney stairs, two yellow stand flood lights luminated the cavern. To Dunya, Serge, and Becker’s surprise, three of Eisenberg's combat synthetics laid motionless on the rocky dirt floor. It's not clear what rendered them offline, if they were attacked or they just ceased to function. The motion tracker began to seize up before briefly detecting two bleeps coming from the cave tunnel up ahead. Two warriors charge towards the Mercs. Their carapace was tougher and its rigid shape helped deflect some of the bullets fired at it. The warriors were briefly repelled, 67 rounds left in Dunya’s clip. Dunya looked over at her men, she noticed Serge was missing.

“Where’s Serge?” Dunya asked.

“I don’t know..” Becker replied, he trips over something hard. “Jesus christ…” He turns to see it was Serge’s heavy flamethrower. On closer inspection it was covered in blood. “Oh shit, no… no… not Serge”

“Hold yourself together, comrade. We have a job to do,” Dunya proceeded further into the cave. Becker hesitantly follows her. The motion trackers began to malfunction, but the Mercs could hear their hisses coming from behind and from the side tunnels. The warriors return to cut them off from their escape. Becker begins to unload an entire clip into the warriors, one of the warriors goes down but her sisters quickly take her place. 

“Dunya, run!” Becker shouts at his comrade, the xenomorphs overpower the Texan Mercenary. He removes a grenade from his belt, “See you fucks, in hell!” The lead warrior fires her inner jaws into his skull before Becker  has the chance to pull the pin. His body goes limp, the grenade rolls harmless away from the xenomorphs.

Dunya finds her sprinting down the cave, unsure of where she is going and questions the futility of running to save herself. The xenomorph's constant hissing echoes from all directions. Dunya had no choice but to flee down the narrow passage, the warriors squeezed themselves down the narrow passageway. Dunya trips over a rock as she falls and rolls down a steep incline. She mentally prepares for her inevitable death, clenching her teeth as tears roll her face. The xenomorph hisses fill the chamber from a steady distance. Dunya was wondering why they hadn't approached her. She lifts her head to see the xenomorphs have suddenly stopped in the middle of the cave entrance. They stood there pacing back and forth as if some invisible wall was preventing them from moving forward.

She turned around to see the chamber was different from the natural cave formation. It was artificial and biomechanical in design, where the artifact stood hovering within a cylindrical energy field above a pedestal but below a large four prong ceiling structure, perhaps it’s to keep the artifact powered. To the left was a large segmented arching over a large clunky copper computing unit. Its design is alien to the rest of the ruins.

“Sir, are you listening?” Dunya pauses, “Sir?” the xenomorphs had gone silent as they stared at her from afar. Two offline synthetics laid sprawled on the floor like the ones from earlier.

“You took… than expected. I trust you have arrived… chamber?” Rykov’s transmission was staticy and garbled.

But Dunya understood the gist, “I believe so, sir. Is this channel secure?” she asks.

“Yes, quite,” Rkyov confirmed, “The others - they are with you?” Rykov asked.

“No, sir. They… are not” Dunya answered remorsefully. More xenomorphs gathered at the chamber entrance.

“They… knew the risks. And the reward. Let us make sure their efforts are not wasted” Rykov then switched the topic, “What do you see?”

“I am in a large chamber. It appears different from the ruins I've been in before. I see… the artifact. It appears to be floating… no suspended… in some sort of field” Dunya slowly approached the artifact, keeping her distance from the xenomorphs.

“That’s as we expected. Eisenberg’s synthetics made it almost this far. They just didn’t make it back. We do have some poor quality transmission of what they saw there, however” an American-accent man suddenly started speaking to her.

Dunya was wondering who was speaking to her, “Dunya, that was Dr. Post. He is going to give instructions on using the device” Rykov explained.

Dr. Post, a red haired man with a wiry build, dressed in white lab attire. He spoke through the com-unit hanging off the side of his face. “I doubt you are going to like this very much…” Dr. Post warned.

“Hmm… What I like is of little concern, doctor” Dunya replied.

“No… I suppose not. If you look at the back of the device, you can see it has a peculiarly shaped extrusion” Dr. Post explained. Dunya stares at the box-shaped device she brought with her. She sees the four rectangular extrusions on the back. 

“Yes… with four prongs coming out of it” Dunya observed.

“Yes, that's it. What you have now is called a worm device. As far as we can tell, this is fairly standard interface for the Engineer computer tech. Once you plug the device in, it should interface with the Engineer systems that are online and start shutting them down one by one” Dr. Post explained extensively.

Dunya stared up at the ceiling, the artifact still being suspended by the purple energy field. The massive biomechanical prongs sticking out of the ceiling seem to emit tiny lights along its arms. The four prong-like pedestal rests on a platform surrounded by a maintenance crevice that seemingly leads to the lower levels of the chamber. Across from the platform was the biomechanical archway above the copper bulky computer of unknown design. Behind it was a similar architectural design door grafted onto the biomechanical doorway. 

“How long will that take?” Dunya asked.

“Ah… well, that’s the tricky part. There is no telling how much of the tech there is still functioning correctly. Our tests show it could take several hours if things are really bad” Dr. Post added. Dunya turns her head towards the xenomorphs behind her. They begin to assume a resting position. Dunya turns her attention back to the artifact, she swore she saw something move around in the shadows.

“That could be the problem, Doctor. You told me this would take several minutes” General Rykov growled.

“Well… it would. If everything were…” Dr. Post started stuttering nervously.

“Dunya, you cannot spend several hours down there alone. I am sending a team to extract you, ASAP” Rykov gave Dr. Post a disapproving glare.

“That’s just it, sir. I was fighting for my life up until the moment I entered the chamber. When I did… the xenomorphs just… they just stopped” She observed the xenomorphs were now all curled up into a box-like shape.

“It’s likely they have some aversion to this area. After all, it was obviously an important place when the Engineers built it. Dr. Maurita once speculated that the xenomorphs might have a hive memory, which allowed…” Dr. Post droned on before Rykov interrupted.

“Dunya, once you activate the device, be prepared to get out as quickly as possible. If there is any trouble, leave the artifact. It can be retrieved later once the device has managed to disable the Engineer tech” Rykov ordered.

“Just the same, sir. I’d prefer not to come down here a second time if I can avoid it.” Dunya grows increasingly nervous of her situation, “Just plug it in and this thing starts shutting systems down at random?” Dunya asks curiously while she raises her arms in the air.

“That’s it. The Engineer systems are remarkably intelligent and robust. It’s only a matter of time before the surviving systems figure out how to turn everything back on again, so you must retrieve the artifact quickly” Dr. Post warns.

“Dunya, keep your comlink open and inform us as soon as anything changes. Good Luck” Rykov added.

“Yes, sir” Dunya complies. She walks away from the seemingly dormant xenomorphs. She walks down the slopes to the platform holding the artifact. She slips down into the maintenance crevice between the platform and the rest of the chamber. The maintenance crevice was more biomechanical looking then the rest of the chamber. There Dunya spots a large computing unit attached to the platform base. A man-made large rectangular computing block is grafted onto the engineer’s bio-computer. Dunya attaches the worm device to the computing block. 

“General?” Dunya asked, waiting for further orders.

“Go ahead,” Rykov replied.

“I've inserted the device,” Dunya reported.

“Good, now we wait,” Rykov replied.

Dunya finds her way back to the platform suspending the engineer artifact. She looks around the adjacent walls. She swore she spotted something again in the corner. Dunya accidentally kicks a heavy metal mask across the floor. She picked it up curiously, it was quite heavy and had deep gashes across its face.

The vulture heads watch from afar, curious of this tiny creature. To it a human resembles their late enslavers, just smaller and their heads covered in hair. The vulture heads chirp amongst themselves. They could sense the power fluctuating, which means he will be awakening soon from his slumber.

CHAPTER 3: ANCESTORS

Locale: Planet Korari, Weyland-Yutani Bio-Weapons Facility
Date: July 13th, 2211

A vessel drops from the dark grey clouds, it was a UD6 Mohawk Dropship. It flew over the research facility. The facility was seemingly deserted. The dropship circles around the perimeter before extending its landing gears to land. The seven colonial marines depart from their military vessel, unaware that they are being watched. Private Dane White was sent to scout the base perimeter. He was followed by Private Bruno Honcho, both armed with the standard issue M41A1 Pulse Rifle.

“Perimeter secured sir” Pvt. White reports over his com unit.

Private First Class Mira Laine and Private First Class Shane Laine sweeped in with their M55 Smart Guns. Next was Cpl. Vassil Rykov, Sgt. Jonathan Manners, and 2nd Lt. Enrico Rodriguez.

The marines had entered the facility. He began traversing the korarikian jungles. Leaping from tree to tree, branch to branch, until he finally arrives at the oomen facility. He clicks his mandibles, contemplating the many ways he is going to butcher these oomens. He taps at his wrist computer shrouding himself in a cloak.

The marines slowly surveyed the rooms, the mess hall was an utter mess. The researchers' bodies were all hung upside down stripped of their skin. The marines examined the room further, they found the scientists missing parts lying in a pile in the corner.

“What the hell happened here?” asked Huncho.

“I think i’m going to be sick” White retreated out of the room.

“What's the matter Dane, can’t keep your food in?” Mira asked rhetorically.

“The Dweeb always had a weak stomach,” Shane comments.

“Enough of the chatter, comrades” Corporal Rykov demanded.

“Hey, remind me again why we took the roosky with us?” Shane asked.

“I am not a Russian, I am colony born… of Russian descent, major difference” Rykov corrected.

Dane’s screams could be heard coming down from the hallway followed by the sound of gunfire. The six marines bolted down the corridor only to find the bathroom stalls covered in his blood. His uniform was ripped to shreds and stuffed in the toilet along with what's left of his digestive system.

“Oh my god…’ Mira cursed to herself.

“What the hell?” Lt. Rodriguez spots what Mira is staring at, the hanging body of Private Dane White. “Manners call HQ, I want answers,” Rodriguez demanded.

“Sir” Sgt Manners heads to the comms room to set up communications.

He stared down at the hanging corpse, its heat began to fade into blue and black. He switches the vision of his biomask. Black vision, the bones of his prey were now visible through the obstructions. He projects his tridot laser on one of the oomens with the big gun. A red line dances across his biomask’s vision before forming into a locking red triangle. His plasma caster jerks to life, a blue plasma ball escapes from the shoulder cannon. FSHRRNKKK!

Mira’s chest is blown open, her eyes flustered before collapsing to the ground lifelessly. Hunter lets out a loud cry, he kicks open the door to the outside as he readies his M56 smartgun and begins unleashing a hail of bullets randomly into the infrastructure. The predator switches his biomask vision back to blue, Heat vision. A stray bullet knicks the yautja in the shoulder, his glowing green blood drips on the ground. He retreats to the broad limbed korarian trees.

The alien hunter’s presence only served to alert the colonial marines. What went from an investigation switched to a rescue mission.
However the alien hunter has a mission of his own, the destruction of this facility and the reclaimition of his people’s remains. The predator Paya’kan’di will not allow these oomens to live, his ancestor’s honor must be restored.

Paya’kan’di leaped from the broad-limbed forest as he sprinted to the other side of the facility. He climbs through the second floor window of the facility. There he spots the recovered ancient weapons and the skeletal remains of his ancestors, Paya’kan’di will bury them later.
The predator bursts into the comms room where Rodriguez and Manners are seen talking to their superiors through the computers. Manners turned around to the intruder but saw nothing. Briefly there was a shuttery wave moving closer to him. Paya’kan’di silences him with a swift beheading with his combi-stick.
The leader was now alone. Paya’kan’di charged with full zeal, his combi-stick tore through the lieutenant's stomach wall and broke his spine. He pulls the combi-stick out of his prey. Satisfied that he’ll no longer pose a threat to him, he turns around to cut off the communications.
However Rodriguez wasn’t dead yet, the colonial marine officer defiantly raised his pistol at the predator alien. He squeezed the trigger, globs of green blood splats around the room.

Paya’kan’di spun around and impaled Rodriguez in the throat with the back blade of his combi-stick. He claims his skull, honoring his noble defiance to his memory. He spots Hunter in the doorway. Paya’kan’di draws his smartdisk. Hunter locks his smart gun on the alien hunter. The smart gun unleashes a volley of bullets into Paya’kan’di, the alien predator dashes behind a set of large clunky computer monitors. His armor takes most of the damage but the bullets do hit a few soft spots. The bulky computers are ripped to pieces by the hail of bullets.

Paya’kan’di stood up despite his injuries, throwing the smartdisk at Hunter. The smartdisk flies in the air, Hunter raises his smart gun up to block the disk. The disk cuts through the smartgun before slicing into Hunter, bifurcating his chest cavity. Paya’kand’di took this time to medicate his injuries. First he sprays pain killers of his wounds as he pulls the bullets out, he roars in pain but it must be done. Next he begins melting building materials into a blue coagulative adhesive to seal up his wounds. Finally he injects himself with a blood producer to replenish the amount of blood he lost.

His biomask picked up two heat signatures, Honcho and Rykov. He must eliminate them before tending to his ancestor’s remains. Paya’kan’di grabs his combi-stick and smart disk. The hunt is not over yet.
Honcho and Rkyov heard a strange roar in the comms room, they arrived too late as Hunter was just eviscerated by something. Honcho is thrown to the opposite wall. His stomach bleeds profusely as the impaling combi-stick materializes out of thin air.

Rykov bolted away, fearing he would suffer the same fate as his comrades. “Not me, Not me!” he whispered to himself, “Come on Vassili, come on Vassili, you'll make it” For a while he thought the alien predator had lost interest in him. But now he was lost in the Korarian forest, surrounded by nothing but broad limbed trees. It's been hours since he last saw another human being. A loud explosion boomed across the air, Rykov feared it was the research facility. He feared he failed his mission and let his fallen comrades down. Rykov would swear to avenge their deaths, should he survive this ordeal.

Paya’kand’di stares down from the white barked broad limbed tree at the pathetic sight that was Vassili Rykov. Killing him now would be boring to the elite yautja. He decided he wanted to have some fun with this oomen. He clicks his mandibles to get Rykov’s attention. Rykov didn’t budge believing these clicking was from an insect of somesorts. “I WANT ANSWERS,” the predator plays back Lt. Rodriguez’s voice.

Rykov bolted from his spot. He ran out into a clearing. The ground cuts off into a deep gorge. Rykov could see water at the bottom. He heard that insect clicking again, only now he realizes it's coming from his pursuer. Rykov turns around, looking for his attacker. Paya’kan’di reveals himself to his prey. Rykov got a good look at him. Paya’kan’di stood strongly on the broad-limbed tree. He wore a gold biomask with crown-like protrusions on the forehead region. He looked like a prince on a boar hunt, Rykov thought.
Paya’kand’di however wasn’t too impressed with his prey, although he was a large bulky oomen with strong features. All he has done thus far was to run away from him and coware when backed in a corner.

“WHAT THE HELL?” Paya’kan’di replayed Rodriguez’s voice after seeing Rykov drop his weapon. Rykov slowly took a step back, he was encroaching on the precipice of the gorge. “GrrrCome ongrrrr, Vassiligrrr” Paya’kand’di attempts to speak in the oomen’s language. Rykov allowed himself to fall off the cliff’s edge. Paya’kand’di angrily fires his plasma caster where Rykov once stood. The alien prince leaps down from his tree, he looks over the cliff edge. His biomask attempts to gain a lock on his query but detects nothing; Paya’kan’di anger filled roars echo across the gorge.

Vassili Rykov awakens on the shoreline, he mustered up all the strength to climb out of the flowing water. “We got movement,” said someone. Vassili looked up, it was a colonial marine. The second team had arrived. The quickly medics place him on a stretcher. They wheel him on to the dropships before departing from the planet's surface. Paya’kan’di watched as the colonial marine ships abandoned the planet. The research facility is in flames and the ancestral remains are restored to the ancestral tombs beneath the korarian soil.