Prologue
"It is human nature to help those who are in need of it. A person who can't feel sympathy is no human."
Unknown
He woke up with a same feel what you get if you took one or two beers too much last night. What was it called again? Hangover. Yeah, it felt like hangover, except he hadn't taken any alcohol and last night where he had been conscious was about 1.5 years away. He opened his eyes and was greeted with a plain, calm male human face.
"Good morning, sir. How was the cryo-sleep?" It asked with emotionless voice. he blinked few times and stood up. The human was actually an android, which he referred "Rick". It had bugged out long time ago, which gave it a bit more personality. He took his clothes from the locker and left the room. He went to the bridge. He was on a one-man ship, called "Equator", which he had bought. He had left humanity, because he was done with humans: All those wars, poverty, hunger and other problems. And nobody gave a shit about it. Earth was lost long time ago, everybody knew that, and humans at their hunger reached for the stars, only to destroy those worlds too. He had left to live alone, as he had no family or friends. He was angry to humankind. Not that he believed that all the humans were the same, no, but he didn't want to live in a corrupted society.
"Computer, why did you wake me up?" He said aloud. He knew the reason, but he wanted to hear it himself.
"I have found a habitable planet, and arrived here, like you ordered me. We are now in orbit around a thus far unknown planet, which I have named: Pasec. The planet has breathable atmosphere, is 83% covered in water and has live on it. Resembles Earth from Prehistorical era." So he was here. He had found a new home for himself. He looked at the planet from his screen: It was indeed very similar to Earth, when there still was live on it. Clouds covered big areas of it, and he could even see a hurricane whirling over some islands.
"How log till landing, Rick?" He asked. The android walked next to him and answered:
"About three hours. Go and eat something, you haven't used your mouth in one and a half year." It said and pointed towards a screen on the wall. He walked at it and pressed "Breakfast". In no time, there was a bowl of porridge in front of him with a glass of water. Nothing too exotic. He took the bowl and sat on the seat. The planet was closing, and soon he would be walking on it.
There was a small Thump as they landed. The landing pads locked and the ship's engines shut down. He ran the scan; Air was breathable, indeed and there was no any living creatures close to the ship, so no danger. He packed some food, first-aid pack and his trusty plasma rifle. Who knew if he would need it, this planet was totally new. Then he jumped on the hover-bike and opened the hangar doors He saw the most stunning scene so far: Plains of grass and in the distance there was some forest and even farther some mountains. He could see something flying in the sky far away. He looked around: The flora was like some kind of Earth's prehistorical plants. The air smelled clear and fresh, unlike Earth's. Sun was high, but it wasn't too hot. He looked around before setting off.
First at all, he needed to find where he was going to make his home; it had to be close to a big water source because of his hydrogen generators, and it had to be somewhere open so it was easier to get into, but close to a forest so he could get something to eat. looking around he noticed that those kinds of spots were usual; he had to just choose the best place. And there was a lot of places to choose. Well, better visit them all.
Around 4 Pm, when he was flying over a small plane with random bushes here and there and small hills, he heard it: A high scream of fear and another, louder roar. It came behind a hill he was passing by. He stopped and jumped off the bike. He ran on top of the hill, and he saw something he didn't yet know would change his life: A huge, maybe 15 feet long creature with four feet and with tendrils coming from its head creature was chasing a small, black creature with long tail and long, curved head. A xenomorph. He had never seen one alive, but had heard many stories of them: they habit almost every planet with life, and are some nasty things. At least half of the stories are made up, and from the rest only about tenth is from real survivors. Even though he knew what it was, the whole scene was sad: that little xenomorph had no way defending itself, an from the size it was, it hadn't even grown up yet.
"For the love of-" He said and ran for the bike. He grabbed the rifle and then returned on top of the hill. He was just able to see the xeno run into a hole on the ground, and its chaser began digging it up. He lifted the rifle and too his aim. He smirked before pulling the trigger. There was a small TZZUP! as the magnets inside the rifle accelerated the plasma and shot it. The creature let out a small surprised whimper before falling down dead. He put the rifle on his back and began walking towards the scene.
When he was just some tens of feet away from the hole, the xeno jumped out of it. It looked around and was its former threat dead. Then it noticed him. It looked at the body and him few times, and then understood what had happened. It was still alarmed, but he was able to see from its pose that it was curious of him. He was curious of it too. Slowly, it crept towards him, until it was just mere twenty feet away from him. He had stayed put all the time. Moving could scare it. It studied him with its... well, it had no eyes, but it looked at him. He studied it too; it was very different then what he had seen before: it had some kind of armor covering its head and he could see small second pair of arms under the bigger ones. It also had a bit different pose and body structure. When it looked at his feet, he saw that it had got a big, half-moon shaped scar when it had escaped that thing. It didn't look serious, but it would leave a mark. Then, it looked straight to his eyes, and lowered its tail. Somehow, it took away all of its scariness. He came to a conclusion that it was its way of showing peace. He too lowered his gun to the ground and let his hands to be visible. It looked at him some time, until it began slowly pacing towards him.
When it was just some feet away, he slowly lifted his hand and reached forwards. The xeno didn't stop, but lowered a little. Then, it stopped his hand just inches away from its forehead. It could easily bite his hand off, now. If it wanted, it could even kill him in a blink of an eye. then, it took one small step and let him touch it. Its skin was somehow rubbery and smooth. It was first wary, but he could see that it liked to be touched. Surely it was lonely. Then, after just some few moments, it turned and ran away. He looked behind it and then shrugged. He felt good for helping it out. It seemed clever, unlike that thing he had killed. He looked at it again. It was very similar to Earth's lion, except it had reptilian features and its skin was grey and green colored. He turned away and returned to the bike.
He returned to the ship late. He had looked around and found the place he thought was perfect. Now he just had to show it to Rick, and it could tell if the place was indeed good for them. He opened the hangar, and parked the bike. When he arrived to the bridge, Rick just stood out of its charging station.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" It asked. He inserted the bikes memory station to the computer and it began loading the map the bike had made as he cruised around.
"Yup, and tomorrow, we are going to get there and have a good look at it. But now, I'll have my dinner and go to sleep. I'm dead tired." He said and went to the machine. It gave him some soup and a glass of milk. He ate and went to the bed. Something was giving him a weird feeling of happiness, but it wasn't because he had found a good place for home. It felt like he had found something bigger.
He woke up next day full of energy. Rick was already up and packing the things it was going to need on the bike. He dressed up and went to the hangar, and was greeted by Rick who was sitting on the bike.
"Are you ready? I've been waiting here for 10 minutes and 37 seconds already." It said with a hint of annoyance in its voice. He smiled and jumped to the controls. He opened the hangar wirelessly and and sped off.
They arrived to the plot fast. It was already about 11 Am and the sun was rising. There was a herd of some small animals in the distance. He climbed off the bike and Rick followed. The place was a plain with short grass with some hills here and there, a lake just some hundreds of meters away and a forest/jungle about same distance to the other way. Rick took some devices from the bike and began measuring different things he didn't even care to know. He wanted to know if he could live in here. After some beeping, Rick stood up.
"This area is suitable. We need to go and see that lake and forest too." It said and began walking towards the lake. He followed. He was no help right now, but he was the one who needed the home, and so he had to go with it. After some walking they reached the lake. The herd of what he now saw were bull-like creatures walked away from them, and they were left alone. Rick walked t to the water and sunk a small device in the water. It held it there for some time, and then it pulled the device out. It looked at the screen and stated:
"Water is safe, but it needs some filtering to be drinkable. That isn't a problem." It then turned and began walking back towards the way they had came. They passed the bike and continued towards the forest. When they reached it, it stopped and turned to see him.
"You should stay here. No one knows what can hide in there. I can take care of myself if I need to, but you can't." It said and turned again. It was the same to him. He stood there for some time but then got tired and sat down. The forest seemed very dense. He couldn't see even 10 meters before the trees blocked his view. Nothing moved in there, but he could hear Rick moving in there. Then he came back.
"Good news: this forest consists all but one kind of trees what we need. We can use others in stead, if we need, so there is no serious problems. This area is good for building." It stated and waited for his decision.
"Well let's get back to the ship then, and move it her so we can start!" he said and waited for Rick to move before following.
They flew the ship to the plain and began building. They had taken some machines with them, the same machines what colonists used. It still took about a month for the building phase to even start. During that, he looked around and studied the lifeforms of this planet. All species seemed to be reptilian, although some differences to Earth was; many had fur, and even more had feathers. It was like all the species of Earth was here, except that they were all reptile versions. He also killed some of them, to see which were good to eat. he wasn't going to survive with the ships food for long. He used a hand-held scanner to see any possible poisonous or dangerous species, but found none. There was very few predators, and even those few were lone wolfs. When the house's walls were ready, he had already studied also the plants close by: there was no substance for salt or pepper close by, so he was going to need use the ship's store for those. He never saw any xenos during this time; he had almost forgotten that small alien but every night, his thoughts came back to it. Somehow, thinking of it got him to a good mood. He had saved it, true, but still he felt that he had done something more. He always slept well when thinking of it.
The house was almost ready when he saw first signs of xenos. It was about half a year after his landing, and he had become familiar with his surroundings. First he felt like someone was looking at him when he was close to the forest, but saw nothing. Then, he became noticing claw-marks on the trees and dead animals. All of them had a hole in their chest, if they had one. Fortunately, all those were far away of his home, but he still made some precautions; he manufactured some simple turrets around his home, which he enabled for the night. It continued for some time, until suddenly, it stopped. Except for the feeling of being stared. Now, though, he felt it always when exiting the house. He always took his rifle with him, just to make sure. But he saw nothing unusual, neither he saw any marks of xenos. But when he went farther, he found those claw markings again and dead animals. He chose to map the unsecure areas and was surprised that the area the xenos moved was around his home, but it stopped some hundreds of meters away from it. His house was surrounded by an area where the xenos seemed to live. He didn't want to see them, but he wanted to know why they acted so weirdly. Almost like they purposely stayed away from him. But they did know he was there, as he felt all the time that he was observed.
It was almost a year from the first landing on the planet when he finally saw one again. And he felt no fear from seeing one. He saw its head looking at him from the forest, but when it saw it had been noticed, it ran away. It had seemed like a normal xenomorph, not like the one he had saved. They acted very weirdly. He had read that the xenos would kill anyone without thinking it more. But these stayed away. Why? They had had their chances to attack, but still, nothing. Absolutely nothing. He didn't want to live in confusion, and began looking for them. Not sure why, he felt that this was right thing to do. Surely they would kill him if they found him, but he wanted to have some danger in his life. So, he began taking treks to the forest, deeper and deeper.
After some days, he began seeing more xenomorphs: now, they weren't running away if he noticed them, but they still stayed away. He never saw one properly, only its head, but he knew that it wanted to him do something. He was unsure how he knew that, but it was waiting for him to do something. After he had been looking for the answer for a week, he found something: a cave in the middle of the forest, which was covered in the substance the xenos made their nests out of. He wasn't mad enough to go in. He marked the place on the map and ran away. He was suspecting to hear some chasing behind him, but nothing happened. He looked behind him. There was nothing chasing him. He was about to look forwards when he hit his head to something and fell to the ground, unconscious. Hie final thoughts before blacking off were:
"They know I'm here. I think they are going to die here. Not that I'm scared of death, but there is better ways to go."
Author's notes: New story! Thanks to an anonymous reader who gave me the idea of this story! For those who see this and had read my other stories: This means that the update speed may slow down a lot, as now I have two stories to write. Please review and tell me what you think!
Hergotzer
