Alien: LV-426 (Update 1.0)

(SPOILERS)

Below, are the first two chapters of a fanfic novel I decided to write post-watching the new Alien Covenant film, of course, more is to be written. And I hope to produce something that could explain how LV-426 comes into this, finally making the link between the first film and these new ones. Again, it is just a fan fic, but I hope you all enjoy!

Alien: LV-426

USS Bulwark Crew:

Synthetic/Android Units: 2

Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2 “Richard”

Combat Android - Deactivated

Ship Crew: 6

Ship Captain Willis Ignis

Chief Engineer Officer Alex Rhodes

Engineer Randy Turner

First Mate Hera Letti

Second Mate Connor Orendal

Chief Science Officer Naomi Usseni

Military Personnel: 14

Lieutenant David Traffered

Sergeant Sarn Varen

1st Corporal Lara Sanchez

2nd Corporal Kenneth Sanders

Communications Officer Harad Davir

Sniper Specialist Timothy Jarin

Heavy Weapons Specialist Steven Kuark

Explosives Specialist Harry Smith

Private First Class Karen Lander

Private William Narn

Private Daren Flade

Private Gareth Man

Private Jessica Aimes

Private Billy Param

Total Occupants: 22

Chapter 1: Wake

Two years ago, the colonisation spacecraft, Covenant, was set for a course to the habitable world of Oregei 6. Part way through the mission, its course was diverted for reasons unknown to a nearby system. Ship logs report the acting Captain stating this world to be habitable and a suitable replacement for the colonisation mission to divert to. This decision met little objection from the crew due to a recent cryogenic disaster ending in the loss of the original Captain; the crew continued to follow its diversion.

Only a few hours past upon arriving at the system before the covenant's next transmission reached Earth, stating the tragic death of thirteen of their crew members and several of the colonists in cryo-sleep; furthermore, returning to its original assignment of travelling to Oregei 6.

Despite any more attempts at communication with the Covenant spacecraft, nothing more was heard from them. Due to the unknown causes of death for twelve of the crew members, and the suspicion that the Covenant was now under the command of the missing, and assumed malfunctioning synthetic unit from the Prometheus exploration mission; emergency rescue protocols were put into place, under the command of the Colonial Marine Corp.

Two months after the final transmission from the Covenant, the USS Bulwark was deployed to find the Covenant. Its mission, to search for any survivors, and to locate and retrieve the malfunctioning synthetic for analysis back on Earth. As the USS Bulwark came into the outer-rim of the system, the MU/TH/UR unit installed, activated their assigned synthetic crew member; a new model, Hyperdyne Systems 120-A/2. The synthetic maintained and updated the manual systems onboard the ship, before allowing the rest of the ships occupants to wake from their hyper-sleep, approximately two days away from Oregei 6.

Along with its crew the USS Bulwark's cargo contained their personal food and drink requirements, along with enough to sustain an additional two thousand one hundred people should the missing covenant crew members be found and brought aboard the ship for immediate evacuation. Access to this section of the cargo deck has been restricted to avoid containment issues. Cargo also included, the standard military armoury located on board Colonial Marine vessels, three emergency life support ships, three Colonial Marine Corp assault crafts, and the standard requirements for land based vehicular travel. As Richard commenced its final checks of the manual aspects for the ship, it began the process of waking up the rest of the crew.

The dull hallways were lit with an array of the ships light, while the low hum of the engines vibrated the metal grated floor leading to the cryo-stasis sector of the ship. As all the cryo-tanks slowly opened, allowing the crew to come to a steady wake, no stomachs were left unturned by the long period of time stuck in cryo-sleep; some were better at hiding this than others. The main ship crew were quick to get dressed, grabbing but a few snacks on their way to the bridge; whilst the marines took a much slower approach to recover from their long sleep. The Lieutenant had gone with the main ship crew to the bridge, as the Sergeant continued his methods of encouragement to get his marines out of their beds. Many didn't bother getting fully clothed, heading straight to the dining quarters where they quickly demolished the days first meal, despite it being the corn bread.

“Engines working at full capacity ma'am.” Randy said to Alex, still half-asleep, twirling around on his chair, the head back, as his hands run across the keys in front of him as if second nature. “Check, run diagnostics of our back-ups.” Alex replied, her body language may have looked alert to the rest, but her lazy voice gave away her still rising state. She continued to look at the screens around her, sitting on a chair, nearby and one step up from Randy, while the background chatter is mostly drowned out by the continued humming of the engines driving the ship through the system. “Alright, Richard, how long until we reach Oregei 6?” Willis said with a short glance across his shoulder before looking back to the monitor above him. “The estimated travel time will be two days sir.” Richard replied, standing idle by the bridge's doorway. Hera then turned around on her chair to view over Richard. “That long? What happened to the twelve hour leeway time we originally planned.” Richard glanced up slightly, as MU/TH/UR would then intervene to answer the posed question. “I had to altar the USS Bulwarks course due to a large anomaly located near the system Oregei 6.” The Captain turned at this point, his curiosity distracting him from the bleeping monitors around him. “MU/TH/UR, define the anomaly.” “A recently discovered debris field was located on my scanners, surrounding the system.” MU/TH/UR once again replied to the Captain. “Ain't this ship meant to be built like a space tank?” The second mate, Connor, then said, speaking around the room. “Yeah... MU/TH/UR, this ship's hull is capable of withstanding the low blows from minor asteroids, and we can usually navigate through the larger ones.” The Captain, quizzically said again. “The natural residue was not among my primary concerns, several artificial components were found located throughout the field, of which, some contained high explosive elements.” Again, MU/TH/UR replied in her monotone state. “Artificial?” Randy questioned. “Yes, the components I was able to analyse suggest a high probability they belonged to the Covenant colonisation vessel, but I was unable to identify the unknown metals among the field.” MU/TH/UR quickly responded. All of the crew then let out a small sigh, some cursing quietly to themselves, whilst the Second Mate Connor, mouths 'unknown', with a questionable facial expression about his face to Hera. “MU/TH/UR, were any biological lifeforms detected?” The science officer Naomi then said, turning on her chair. “No biological life was found.” MU/TH/UR spoke once more. “Right, well let's maintain our current course to the system, MU/TH/UR, concentrate your scanners to locate any biological life among the wreckage. Seems like some sort of ass kicking happened here one way or another, I want to know if there's anything here worth worrying about.” Sergeant Varen then came into view of the crew as he spoke up, a lit cigar in his mouth, the tattered eyepatch covering his right eye and a small scar trailing a few inches below it; whilst he positioned more towards the Lieutenant, his gaze moving over to Willis. “That's exactly why we're here Capt'in.” He'd then look more towards the Lieutenant. “Squad's ready for you sir.” The Lieutenant nods towards Varen, letting out a long breath of his own. “Good, I'll brief them now.” The bridge door then shoots back open as Varen and the Lieutenant leave, a silky trail of cigar smoke gliding back from the Sergeant.

Back in the games room, the marines would be sprawled out around it. Tim Jarin would be found half sat up on a ledge in the corner, his desperado hat covering his face while he slept. The rest would be talking and joking among themselves, a small cigarette cloud began to cover the ceiling, and finally, a few would be circled around a pool table, but their concentration would be soon broken as the games room door opens, revealing the Lieutenant and the bad tempered Sergeant, “Lieutenant on deck!” The Sergeant would shout, the veins in his neck popping out, soon to be happily calmed by what appears to be another freshly lit cigar.

The marines all quickly jump up, except for Tim, who starts to wake but only slowly shuffles. Varen eyes him up, striding over towards him, and squatting at the side of him. Varen lifts Tim's hat gently up above his head, “Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt ya and the fairies in la la land.” At this point, Tim, lazily opens his eyes, looking towards Varen. “Sarg?” This response is quickly met with a healthy encouragement of Varen's discipline. He smacks his left hand on the back of Tim's head first, a couple of times, carrying on to smack his back through the duration of Tim quickly attempting to get up. “Get up! Get over there! I can squeeze a SHIT out quicker than that.” Varen continues to eye up Tim until he gets back over to beside the Lieutenant, whilst Tim joins the rest of the marines and stands to attention.

Standing at ease, the Lieutenant finishes his smirk over at Tim, glancing around the rest. “At ease.” The Lieutenant pauses, clearing his throat. “I'll keep this short and to the point. Officially we're on a search and rescue mission for those aboard the Covenant, it was on a colonisation mission to Oregei 6, where for some reason, it diverted to a nearby system. It's suspected it found the missing synthetic from the missing Prometheus exploration mission. The synthetic was malfunctioning, and killed most of the crew onboard. We're not sure if the remaining crew or colonists are alive, but it's our mission to find any survivors, and deactivate the malfunctioning synthetic.” His head snaps around to Steven Kuark, the heavy weapons specialist, “And I do mean just deactivate, the Weyland Corporation want him back as wholesome as possible for analysis. Any questions?”

“Sir, why do they need all of us to get one robot?” Private Billy asks the Lieutenant, clicking his lower jaw about. “To cover your ugly bitch ass.” Daren says smiling around towards Billy. “Hey, you're the one that can't shoot shit, prick!” Billy quickly replies. The two would try to carry on, but Varen makes his move to quickly break it up.“Oi! Can it Privates, sort out ya crippling marriage later.” The Lieutenant dips his head, tilting it in gratitude towards Varen. “Well, considering its malfunctioning, and is responsible for the deaths of 12 of its crew, possibly the entire ship's. It was decided this would be a deadly op, personally, I agree with em from the sounds of the situation. Now, we've had to altar our course because of a debris field, we got two days before we reach Oregei 6, but its assumed that bits of the Covenant are located within it, so it may be more likely we aren't going to find any survivors. Anyway, I want you all geared up and weapons ready in fourty three hours, vehicle checks, and back-ups done in twenty; combat drill in two. Get to it!”

As the marines start to move, some groan, they all head out of the games room, Varen darts his piercing vision across each of his squad, offering his friendly encouragement to them all as they leave the room.

Chapter 2: The Perfect Organism

Past the moons that surrounded the system, trailing through the rings that surrounded it. Oregei 6 laid, a world similar to Earth's, land plains as far as the eye could see, lakes that drove on for miles, and a mountain that sat to disrupt the cloud around it, it's peak crippled as if it had been struck by an opposing force. Then, closer to the crooked mound, a figure, cloaked, could be seen gazing down from the mountain.

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Below the figure, past the black rock leading down, across the lake beside it, and on the plain leading from it, littered a field of silenced screams. Nothing but tattered rags and broken bones scattered the lands; and there, two lost souls attached to rotting posts presented an array of broken ribs, pieces scattered the ground, as the jaws of these poor victims gapped open, as if the hell they witnessed still struck a great fear even in death.

The figure atop of the mountain, slowly unveils his hood, taking in a deep breath through his mechanical innards. Through obvious conflict to his outer shell, his voice would crackle, a more robotic tone took effect to his proper tone. David, sighs. He turns swiftly, his cloak wafts in the strong winds around him as he heads into a large cave entrance inside, the mountain.

As David travels through the cave, the light dims, and the dark tunnel continues. Upon reaching a bend deep inside, a single torch is lit. David picks takes the torch from its holder, moving further into the cave with the torch lighting his way. Nothing but the singular drops of water hitting the floor, and the quiet whispers of the winds could be heard as David comes to reach the caves deepest point. He stops, holding the torch still as he does with himself.

The sound of a few loose rocks could be heard rolling to the floor across the other side of the room. David shoots his gaze over to it, keeping his still position. As he looks to his left, in front of him, hidden in the darkness, an black oval shape slowly comes into view, silent, it's head begins to lift, revealing the drool seeping from between its teeth. It's hand makes a soft pat on the ground as the demon moves further into the light; with this, David snaps his head forward viewing over the creature, a short pause, he could never look upon his creation without a sense of awe striking him.

“Where is your sister?” He spoke calmly to the beast. It did not move. David takes a step forward towards it, and the creatures head in turn, looks to its right. With this, David shines his torch over to his left, David's expression is remains neutral, but another pause insinuates, however, not from awe. As the light begins to reveal another part of the cave, the second Xenomorph rested motionless on the ground, corroded shards of rock still hissed as the acid ate its way into them. A series of claw strikes could be seen across the main body, and on the head, a large bloodied hole at the front. David slowly turned his head back towards the other, following his movements, the Xenomorph copies. David approached the Xenomorph, coming but a few centimetres away.

A smile creeps to his face, “Darwin's theory of natural selection.” He'd stroke along the head of the Xenomorph, his hand would stop as it feels a sharp ridge poking out of the head about half-way along. David stares quizzically at this new feature, before back at the Xenomorph, it would quickly back away from David's hand, looking up to the ceiling and hissing, as it would then retreat completely.

A low hum vibrates the ground, David would look up for a short moment, then leaving the cave soon himself. As David appears back on the mountain top again, a shadow casts over him, the low hum, now a loud boom shaking the very peak of the mountain. “My name is Ozymandias! King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty! And despair!” David roars out, his arms outstretched, as the engineers ship comes to hover in front of him.