Troptomos Colony
Chapter one: Ivory Keep
I do not own Alien (Xenomorphs), nor do I own Predator (Yautja) or their universes, mingled or otherwise, which includes Weyland-Yutani and the technologies shown within comics, books and movies. This will be the only time I will say this so that is that.
I own the characters in this story and the story itself, as well as any creature or ship I have made up (Or basically let's say 'pulled out of my arse). For those that know me, or probably my previous work, please, refer to my profile for an update on how things are going.
With a sigh, he opened his eyes.
The sudden burst of light that the ceiling lamp, behind the glass that amplified it, made him cringe, but it was good to wake you up, even if you hadn't sleep much. As he grunted, shaking his head at this shocking way of getting himself out of bed, he had to look right and left in search of something.
As always, the room was filled with the machinery he had been hooked with, including the catheter and his bed, which was basically a metallic table that he had been used to after the last ten days. At his right were some machines that were reading his brainwaves and heartbeat, they seemed advanced, for a lack of a better term, and had been linked with some kind of device attached to both brain and heart. The things were huge though, so they took a good portion of the walls of the right, while at the left there was a table with equipment that was encrusted with his dried blood, though they were messed together, as if they had been fused. There was also a screen with some X-Ray images of him, but nothing else.
Luckily, there it was! Under the screen he had left the glasses that had been like a part of his body for the past ten days, and it was not in a figurative way either! After what had happened here, the glasses, a visor type model that hid the front of his face, had been engineered to fit perfectly and to connect to specific holes behind his ears, sending a stimuli to the brain so they would start working.
Eyeing them, he felt the necessity to put them on, but also the struggle to NOT do it.
The glasses were a reminder that he had been controlled all his life, that he had been used by everybody he came to know in the few years that he had a life. Touching the smooth superior and light alloy only made him think that he had been wanted by the one person he looked up as a child so he would end up in this situation.
It had been fifteen years, and he still felt bitter about it.
Fifteen years ago, he had been told by his father, Jonas Ibraham, that he had been promoted to a big and important position within the company known as Weyland-Yutani. At first his father had been part of pest control in a world far away, one that was not really developed and used as a resort for the rich and powerful to relax and hunt. However he had helped some executives from Weyland-Yutani during an accident and they allowed him to take some tests to let him have a position with them. The test came back with interesting results showing the innate mathematical and programming talent that his father had developed during the years as a way to vent out the frustration of his job, which made him someone valued to The Company.
His mother, Ashara Antioch, had been more than delighted to hear it. She was a much simpler woman than his father, not that she was stupid or anything, he would NEVER say such a thing of his mother, but she did her best to never think too hard after living in misery for most her life, now simply wanting to be happy. She had been a guide for the tourists and usually a hunting aide, which made her, much like his father, a good survivor in quite adverse conditions.
It would be much later when he would find out his father had basically sent them to this place so he would get rid of them both.
Before he ever thought about that, he had been delighted at seeing Troptomos, a moon in the outer reaches of human space. It was one of the five moons circling a gas planet in an orbit around a blue sun that was especially good for life to be found. Two moons were rainforests, one of them a desert with an intense cave system full of water. The four one was this one, Troptomos, and the twin moon that was not too far away from it.
These moons were full of plains, valleys and rivers, both of them were quite big for moons, mere planetoids still, but good enough for quite a few colonies on their surface. Still, the company that had made this colony, one that was opposed to Weyland-Yutani, had used one third of its resources to build this place and contract people as well as to find colonists. The other third had been used for a colony of the same proportions not far away, with the remainders saved in case something went wrong. Still it needed help, and Weyland-Yutani offered peace by giving part of the needed equipment and personal for a time.
One of the things they leaned was security force, colonists eager to reach a new and safe home that had jobs and, of course, a huge cargo ship that would carry them all and many creatures of another planet that had nearly the same composition as this one. The creatures would receive the blame of what would happen, being huge as the Kansotauros are (quadruped lizards, one and half times bigger than a bull, usually used as a source of food, clothing and other materials in warm planets with few forests), though they weren't the only creature that the ship had.
He and his mother had been the last ones to awaken from the cryo-pods, everyone else had left the spaceport and the ship, leaving only the personnel from The Company to see that he and his mother went away. At that exact moment there had been a scream, a few gunshots and then a huge creature of black coloration came towards them, crushing his mother against the wall near the exit hatch and drenching his face with a burning liquid that made him cry and stumble about for a few minutes.
By the time he recovered enough of his senses, and his face wasn't on fire, he was outside of the spaceport and had, somehow, ended up inside a dry manhole that was still being constructed. There was no one here, but some of the guards came searching for him, which is the moment when he heard of the plan that involved them having an 'accident' on their way to the colony, a few kilometers away from the spaceport.
It was unbelievable, but as he heard them going through the mission to ensure it was all done, he had to admit that it had been detailed quite nicely. His father had basically been asked one thing, one and only VERY important thing: If he was to be let inside The Company and into the secrets within, he had to show that he was dedicated to it beyond anything else. Part of that meant to help cripple the rival company's projects and, at the same time, show that Weyland-Yutani was willing to help, even if they encountered loses.
His family had been the bargain chip, and he had accepted. His father had basically told them to go die far away from where he could see them, only to live a life of luxury and power.
If it had any other explanation, at eight years of age he didn't care much for it. He had heard enough and he had to admit that if one thing he had from his father, it was the fact that he was very vengeful and he never would forget or forgive. For that reason, and knowing that he would get killed if he got back up, he did what any other kid in his situation could do: He cried.
For two days he wasted always, feeling sick and full of pain, until he decided that he would live in the sewers. He was very young and thought everyone was against him, so he found himself a weak section of the sewers and made himself a small hole to live in. It would take time to get used to the smell, and much more to the fact that he had to eat vermin from many different worlds, of different sizes and, in some cases, of many hidden dangers to him, but he would survive and grow.
Growing to be one meter seventy three and weight around ninety kilos, John would have very short white like hair (very clear grey) and yellow eyes under the stern face that hid most of what he thought behind both a brutish look (from his burnt face) and a silent attitude, as he hadn't talked nearly at all since he was a child. His body would become slender and fibrous, used to resist poisonous environments and food, as well as to survive killing creatures within the dark spaces of the sewers. For that reason he was nearly blinded by sunlight and his skin was extremely pale, which made him look alien to some.
Still, as he grew, and before he turned out as strong as he was today, he had been a coward child that wanted nothing else but to see his mom again and hurt his father for what he had done. For that exact reason, when he found that somebody knew about him, he was scared out of his wits as a PDA had been left in front of his little home with the words 'I know you are there…' as only warning.
He had moved away from that place, but it had only served to have a few days as another PDA lied in front of his new hole. This time the personal computer read 'I can help you… if you do as I say'.
John had wanted nothing else but to run, but he supposed that if he did so, whoever knew of him would, for sure, find him again. This time he waited in the same spot and, when he woke up, another PDA was waiting for him. In this occasion it had a map that showed the whole sewers, it also showed the location of motion detectors and cameras, whit a path very well signaled to lead him towards the head building of Weyland-Yutani within the colony.
Out of curiosity and, in part, wishing to see if there was any information about the creature that had killed his mother, or about his father (which for him was basically the same at that age), he crawled towards the building's location and used the air vents to spy on everyone. The PDA received a message when he was about to reach one of the laboratories that the little base had inside its depths.
'Wait until everyone goes… I will let the security down for a few seconds so you can search'
Unsure if it would be true or not, he just waited until it was night and only the bare minimum personnel were around so as to see if this person would do as they promised, and to see if he/she could be trusted. He had been watching many experiments with some creatures he did not know, but once everyone went away and the power was cut off, John ran to catch papers that the scientists had been using.
He was not going to take them with him however, he just was curious about the creatures, as some looked like the one that had done… that thing, but he was sure that there was no way for him to do anything to them. Of course he was not sure what he was hoping to find on the notes, he was too little to understand most words, but he would remember the words: Xenomorph experiment Beta: Status… escaped, marked for extermination.
The Company had brought other creatures like the one that had escaped, they were having them here and they would probably hurt a lot of people. Having the notes for a few more seconds, John was surprised to see the lights coming back, so he left the papers back and scurried to the sewers again.
A process very similar to this one would take place once a month or each two or three months. In time he would come to learn that this was done because, from time to time, the clean energy (renewable resources) that this colony used was not prepared for the inclusion of Weyland-Yutani's exigencies. For that reason, the generator that used upgraded solar receptors, waste disposals and the nearby river to acquire energy, was not enough to satisfy their requirements all the time.
From time to time John had hours to search the base, or at least minutes, but the first day was the only day he had only a few seconds. Time for him to search would grow along his age, he would come to lose his childhood quite quickly spying on the experiments the people did to innocent creatures, and even other people, as well as because what he had to do to get feed every day, as the few times he went to the surface someone had tried to sell him to security.
Yet, as he grew, he came to see light shed into what had happened and what were those things that had killed his mother.
Called the G-Strand (Or Gene for shorts), they had been a project that the Weyland-Yutani corporation had been trying to get through after their last mishap with another project called the K-Series. This version of the project had been an early deviation from the K-Series and was designed to evolve into many creatures from a single 'host'. He found about the host at age thirteen, it was one of the most horrid things he had seen, and one of the few that would make him think that Weyland-Yutani should be destroyed to the last man. He was only thankful her mother had been killed outright instead of used for that.
Outside of that, John found out that one of the reasons the company called the 'Kraken Corps' had invested so much into constructing this colony. It seemed that the head of the company had made some kind of agreement with an intelligent species known as Yautja (as far as the information from Weyland-Yutani said) and had received some kind of technology from them, technology used for the generator and the powered up solar panels and other equipment such as weaponry and armor. Weyland-Yutani was known to promulgate humanity superiority (besides its own gain), so knowledge of said deal had made sparks fly.
It quickly became apparent that the monsters called Xenomorphs, another alien species, was going to be used to wipe this colony and hurt Kraken as much as possible. Weyland-Yutani had no qualms about killing many innocents, including their own men, to also test the power of the G-Strand and employ new cyber-organic technology that they had been preparing for this situation.
In the end, it would be all an experiment for the power hungry corporation.
Then, a month before his accident, John found out the last PDA message 'They are getting ready to start this mess. Go learn what you can before this goes to hell'.
Doing exactly that, John went to the labs once again. By now he knew the construction from head to toe, and he was quick inside the vents as if he was a snake, used to artificial light and the darkness much more than the world outside. However it would come a surprise to see that this time he was being watched.
When the power went away, he was greeted by a man in armor that handed him a document while pointing one of the famous pulse rifles at him. The document detailed all about a mechanical arm, artificial muscles and skin, as well as neural connections to a visor that increased sight, reflexes and controlled the arm with at least five times more strength than a human. The man wouldn't say anything; he only pointed his hand towards John and then laughed, which prompted the young man to scurry away before the security guard started shooting.
One of the bullets had grazed his leg as he fled, it was not much, but soon it would show symptoms of being infected, something that John had grown out of after getting accustomed to the sewers.
At first it was not bad, the first week it just stung a bit, the second it hurt when he had to use his leg in a fight when he went to feed, but it was still nothing. By the third week he was hurting as he walked and when the fourth came to an end he was about to scream at each step of the way. Finally he was forced to get to the surface and seek for aid. He didn't know all that well how technology worked, but if he hadn't lost his PDA after the security guard shot him, he would've tried to get into contact with the one that sent him the message.
No one would have it as a surprise though, he was being watched all the time, and he had always been watched. It all became clear when he got to the surface and a group of guards, including the one that shot him, were present. He was going to be apprehended before a heavy duty truck came crashing towards the street they were in.
He had decided, on one of those common rainy days, to get to the closest hospital in the colony. Being the thing bigger than any city on Earth, he had any place to chose, but no, he wanted to go to the biggest hospital out of fear, fever and pain. He wanted his leg cured and he didn't mind that the main road passed right behind the manhole he had used, much less that it was one of the rainiest weekend in the moon's cycle. It happened to be the day when an angry driver had decided to take one too many drinks and, after he came crashing through the road, he also took John's left arm.
John was only happy that some part of the plan to capture him went wrong, but as he went in and out of unconsciousness, he saw that it had only helped them somehow as he could see a mechanical arm being attached to him, blood everywhere and, at some point, the reflection of his head being split open.
After that, it had been this room, this room and the others connected to it, nothing else for ten days.
Outside of this damn room there was little asides a corridor that connected with a door that was close in front and two other corridors at the side, one going to a kitchen that had, by now, nearly no food for him to prepare (Or eat raw, as he was not really that good at cooking as you can guess) and another room full of training equipment and an holographic trainer that had helped him understand how many of the weapons and technologies of the modern day worked. From his time as a child to now, he had never had to learn so much in so little time; however he had forced himself to do so.
For some reason he was sure that once the last door opened, he would never come back here again, and he would never be safe. It was either because of The Company or something else. He was not sure, yes, but he was not stupid.
With a final sigh he took the glasses and put them on his head. The things were light, but as he had learned (by accident), they could support his whole weight with no problem (though he wouldn't try again). They also highlighted his vital signs with no problem, letting enough illumination through them for him to see perfectly while also having the few images (mostly his body, blood pressure, heart rate and so on) still clear as a day in the corner of his vision. If he took a weapon from the training room with his left hand, the sensors would indicate how many bullets were in, they would also have a memory bank for munitions he knew that he had on his person (But if they fell of him and he didn't notice, they wouldn't change until he tried to get the numbers right).
It seemed to be a very costly upgrade, a beta version of something, but John was appalled to think people would want to sacrifice part of their own bodies to give Weyland-Yutani another hold on them. The Company had nearly everything under their grasp, and people with these things would probably be controlled as tightly as John obviously had been during practically his whole life.
Thinking was of no use however. John let his musings for later and went to the kitchen, picked up a can of food that he didn't even bother to look at before he opened it and downed the contents into his stomach with barely a chewing movement. He had to eat much worse much more often than this, so this was gourmet's food for the young man. Afterwards it was a time to down a good chunk of water and head for the training room's shower.
After a good bath, and the morning ritual that everyone has to do, John picked the yellow overalls and the sport shoes from nearby, not bothering covering his white (practically in the literal way) chest with the green leather vest as he began his daily training. If they wanted him to do something, he was going to first break someone's bones by being in good enough condition.
It took him probably two hours of getting tired, having his life meant having quite a lot of stamina after so much hunting and running, so after another shower, something he had been basically addicted to after the first time, he took a moment to rest on the floor mat.
" Hello? Anybody?"
Wasn't he accustomed to the distorted voice from the hologram, John would've been worried, but this time the voice sounded way too different. As John looked up, he saw why.
"You…" The man that was being portrayed wasn't the artificial image John was used to see, and he was surprised to see him "You are John… You are the kid I was in contact for the last fifteen years, are you not?" John nodded as he eyed the man warily.
He looked old and tired, his bald head, wrinkled face and bags under the eyes of a gentle looking face told him that something was taxing the man more than it should've been. He was probably smaller than John, and was obviously too thin to be healthy, hell, John had probably been fatter than the researcher while eating vermin! Still he seemed to have an air of power around him, as in another time he had been so much more, as the prideful pose that the man had was making even the bland doctor garb look as if it could conceal a weapon of mass destruction that only he could wield.
Or was it that John had learned to despise doctors after the accident and subsequent arm exchange? He wasn't sure.
"I am so sorry to hear" The old man sighed "I am Jacob Hobs, I am with Kraken Corps. I heard of the accident the day the ship touched ground, but wasn't authorized to search as the spaceport outside the colony is property of Weiland-Yutani" The man seemed to have venom instead of words as he talked about The Company "I found traces of a very powerful mutagen though, which led me to see a young boy crying…" Jacob gave him a look, John only returned a frown "I couldn't approach you though, the security team found me and I had luckily found an escaped Kansotauros that they had blamed his mother's death to, so I had a backup for them not finding said child"
Jonh growled at the mention of his mother and everything he remembered clear as a day as something that was in the past. Jacob simply nodded, more than understanding enough, as he carried on.
"I managed to get a friend of mine to track you again and deliver the first and second PDA. I wanted to retrieve you at first, but he watched you as you acted… like an animal when you at last needed food" Jacob gave an apologetic look "I was sure there was no way you could let me talk you into waiting and letting me help, much less so when you moved away and my colleague had to find you again. However we picked up a sample of your blood and tested on it, seeing that it was changing, part of your composition adapting to where you were"
John's eyes widened as he heard the old man explain how the G-Strand had a highly unstable mutagen that had, initially, been tested into humans to allow them to be much more than they were today. It was not after it failed that they had used it on a variant of the K-Series that the G-Strand had evolved and showed to have, for example, five easily accessible variants of the Drone, a creature that, as far as John knew, was the basic Xenomorph that you could find almost anywhere.
"As far as we know, three months ago the creatures were released to see how long a hive could last in an environment as rich as this one. That was when you were finished and most Weyland-Yutani forces left the colony"
With his face hardening, John got close to the holographic projector as he almost demanded answers.
"Your connections had to get used to your body. You were put out of commission for three months so your body would get used to the arm you carry now, as well as those glasses" Jacob pointed at each respectively "I had asked you to help me since you were young so I could at least prepare you with information to fight The Company if you didn't want to hear me out when the time came. That last day I was hoping for you to get the blueprints of the thing you have now in your body. I was not aware that they knew all along about you, and wanted you as part of the experiment that is going on now"
Simply waving a hand, John urged him to go on and explain the whole thing.
"Look, Weyland-Yutani want those things to be a weapon. We are fairly sure, thanks to information we have stolen from them, that this hasn't been the first time a species has tried to use them as a weapon… and the last time it didn't go well, at all" The old researcher rubbed his bald head as he tried to relax "Enhancing the mutant gene inside the Xenomorphs so they can mutate into many more species is VERY, VERY dangerous. By now we have so many species around here that normal means and tactics do not work. Most people aren't even aware of Xenomorphs as MOST people prefer to be in the dark, much like nearly all the security forces that were recruited into the militia when the colony was formed"
As the old man kept talking, John took the vest from where it was resting and also went besides the holographic projector to pick up a handgun and four clips loaded to the brim, as well as a backpack and eighty more rounds or so. The shotgun had been emptied the first day as he was angry beyond belief, but he still had two shells nearby for it. Unluckily, the pulse rifle that had been issued had been one of the causalities of his anger.
Jacob didn't mind his activity as he kept on going.
"This gen has even fused some humans with the specimen called 'Facehugger', making them independent Xenomorphs that are basically humans trapped inside their bodies. A lot of them have also gotten their own genitals or other means to reproduce, but they do so with such speed, that even the wars between their own species do not deter them from attacking us" Jacob looked around nervously "I am in a fortified bunker only a few kilometers away from where the Weyland-Yutani, we are at the opposite side of town to the spaceport The Company owns, with the one from Kraken being a nest of those things. Luckily near here we have a canyon, so there is no wildlife for the Xenomorphs and there are very few of them in comparison to the rest of the city"
A glance to Jacob told the old man that he didn't believe that of 'very few'. He had read a lot about them, there was no way that only a couple of the things were still around, no matter how much time had passed.
"Right, right… but you shouldn't worry about that" John jerked to attention as he said that "The alien that ki… the one that originated the accident had been wounded. His blood was still not fully recovered from the mutagen, so it left you scarred in the face, but not about to die of caustic burns and blood loss" Yea, John had to nod at that, he was fallowing him for now "However the mutagen was not the original one, it hadn't been tested in humans… and you absorbed it"
There was a huge realization when Jacob said that.
First: John had been angry at the thing that had killed his mother, but he had given him something that he would be unable to take from his body. The thing had not only taken something very dear from him, but also had marked him as if destiny had decided to fuck with his mind with a final bitchslap to the face before letting him go into the new real, and very dangerous, world.
Second: Whatever had happened, the ones from Weyland-Yutani hadn't killed him only to test the arm on him.
"The ones that had been doing this little job on you, had also run some tests" Jacob took some papers from where he was "It seems your skin should be resistant, somewhat, to the acid blood of the Xenomorphs, or they spit, as well as to the toxins they may create and even to their claws and teeth, but only for so long as you can feed your body" The old man had to rub his eyes before he picked two overly sized glasses from somewhere, obviously the poor man had very bad eyesight and was stressing it in front of John "Should also make you live longer, regenerate fast, that kind of stuff… Anything that would affect a Xenomorph, though, will also affect you a lot, which is why you are hardly sick as Xenomorphs' blood dissolve most invasive cells"
"Also" This time Jacob didn't give him time to do anything else, though John wanted to get out of her and clear his mind already "This should make you unable to get impregnated by the Xenomorphs themselves, at least this mutant strand… If you were to find unmodified ones however, they will go for you before any other creature in the area" Jacob's words, and gaze, were hard as they could get as he took his glasses away "You can regenerate fast, even whole limbs if needed, as far as you can convert enough nutrients and/or fat, but if they are gone? You die, and I don't mean you can go and feed; you will die if your reserves get too low. Also if Weyland-Yutani decides to take the common Xenomorph here to eradicate their own traces, you will get hunted like a pest"
Gulping down, John had to admit he had never had any fear to say the truth, and this time was the same. He had outgrown his fears as a kid, or most likely he had been forced to, but still this made him uneasy.
He was a monster so to speak; he had the blood of his mother's killer within his veins, he had been guided to know his enemy because he was mentally unstable and he would probably endanger anyone and anything to get his revenge, also, if it wasn't enough, it seemed like he was now in between two worlds that wanted him dead for different reasons. He was not sure if he would prefer to be dissected by The Company, or if he hoped for them to release those monsters in here so he would give them the chance.
"There is more" Thank the maker for distractions though "For some 'coincidence', there is a heavy ion storm around part of the solar system since this began three months ago. It is nearly impossible to let communications through and I am sure that more than a few ships have fallen prey of the storm. It probably won't take more than a few days, if not week, for us to have visitors though…" The face that Jacob gave him made John even more uneasy. From a brutal, but 'easy' living in the sewers to this… what a world "And in both cases, we will not have any help from them, in fact they will probably try to kill us"
By then John didn't want to hear more and it seemed that Jacob agreed wholeheartedly as the image changed into a 3D layout of the map. In the far northeast side of the city, near a chasm that had been made by a very powerful current that had been separated from the river the city used, was the base of Weyland-Yutani where he was now. The nearby area was compromised of houses for workers of The Company, a few malls, bars and even an arcade or two, but nothing of really big importance as even the hospital was within these walls.
"Most the surface is a wreck" Jacob said as the image got closer to the Weyland-Yutani HQ "There are a lot of walkways that survivors made to walk from building to building as the Xenomorph presence dwindled, but they are all except safe measure" The old man grumbled as a red line appeared "You can get to the rooftops from the door that has been locked until now. I wouldn't recommend exploring the base as the automatic systems still have enough power to activate the defenses. From the rooftops search for a way to go through the buildings until you reach this point"
From the HQ to a mall that was a few kilometers away. John had stolen from that place once or twice, as it was close to where he nested. It had three floors and was freaking huge, probably because it was one of the few that were close to Weyland-Yutani territory in the city and was cheap in most prices that The Corporation usually inflated to their own workers so the money stayed in line.
He remembered to have heard conversations from time to time when he went in there at night. There were a few high security areas, but he thought it was like in any other mall and the signs were to make people piss off.
"I am here with the lieutenant of the militia and another survivor. We can make runs to the mall's levels to get supplies, but we have already lost two people. If you can secure anything when you come in we would be grateful" The voice of Jacob seemed to be nervous as he talked about that, probably because the situation was very bad, which was understandable "One of the ones we lost is the sister of the civilian with us. We are sure she is not dead, but she has been gone for two days… The most probable outcome if you don't find her when you come to us, is that we will have to declare her dead and move to another safe haven the Lieutenant has marked"
The form of Jacob returned and John nodded. He was not a good Samaritan, but he was not an asshole either. Probably it was simply that he was a survivor by his upbringing, so he would do whatever helped him survive, and being in good terms with the one that seemed to know what to do was a good strategy.
Jacob's image faded and John decided it was time to face whatever was waiting for him out there, so he went to pick any food remaining in the kitchen, turning his backpack into a bloated monstrosity before he decided to go. For anyone normal the weight probably would be hindering, for him it was quite all right, though it had a nasty downside: He would not be able to crawl through tight spaces like the vents, it would be too stuffed for the backpack to fit, and the food was something that he needed to get on the good side of some survivors.
With that done, he checked the pistol; it was standard issued for mercenaries as a heavy duty pistol with the bulky appearance and sturdy form, not much different from the marines' version. It could hold twelve shots, eleven in the clip and one in the chamber, which meant that the fifth and last clip was inside, fully loaded and also he had an extra round to expend. With the graphics in his glasses showing it, John let the pistol rest on his hand as he walked towards the exit.
The shotgun would've been a much better choice though, he knew thanks to the information that, even having an acid spit, it was much more frequent by the Xenomorphs to get close and personal. A pistol, usually with three to four times the stopping power of a pulse rifle (but only half of that of a shotgun) could kill them at a close range, but it was a single bullet against a naturally armored adversary.
John knew how to deal with armored bugs in the sewers, but a cockroach of this size would probably shrug one or two pistol rounds. That thought made him slightly nervous as he waited in front of the steel door that separated him from the new reality that The Company had geared for everyone within the colony.
Sighing, and clutching his pistol, he took the handle, only to be startled by a loud whir as a part of the wall to his side turned to reveal something.
As it turned out, the wall had a hidden movement tracker, one of the newer models with 360º vision and faster tapping of the surroundings than the standard 180º or 360º model. However it was a hindrance as it chugged batteries quite fast, batteries that John didn't have. For that reason he took it and plunged inside the overly filled backpack.
'Too much shit for too much work' He growled within his mind. He was not a smooth talker; in fact he would try his best to not talk at all, mostly because he had discovered way too late that when he was a kid he had swallowed part of the blood of that thing. His throat was partially screwed for that.
He shook his head and opened the fucking door. Too much distraction would end up costing him, luckily the metal looking corridor was empty, and all in its grey glory seemed untouched. The only thing breaking the weird and perfect space was the ladder with two yellow arrows pointing up. There was also the problem that the corridor went on two directions to the sides just before the ladder.
Something was bound to be there. This place was not corrupted by what the Xenomorphs made for their lairs, but they would know someone was here. It was a 100% sure bet that at least one was in wait for him to get out.
Of course it could be that he needed to admit one simple fact: He was getting fucking nervous and maybe suffering some stress.
He had been taken from his home by sickness induced by an asshole that then captured him and basically gave him to mad scientists before his world turned to be an infested roach motel. This was if you only counted the past few days that he knew of, so it was perfectly expected except for him, as he didn't want to look weak to his own mind or to anything he came across.
To prove himself right (or hopefully wrong), he took the pistol and charged forward until he was in front of the ladder, looking right and left with the gun ready to fire. As a last measure he looked upwards as he approached the ladder, but only a tightly shut hatch could be seen.
It seemed no creature was in sight, so he had obviously been worried for nothing. The outside, however, didn't promise so much. For once he took his time and thought of what would have been possible if he had a normal childhood back where he had been born. That place had been a hellhole with so many rich assholes bugging most the population, thinking they were there to serve anyone with enough money, but he would have his father, wouldn't know how much of an asshole he was, and he would have his mother without his own little self mutated over a frigging accident.
A high pitched hiss made him understand something though: Never hope for anything better of what you've got when things are going to hell. You will only earn something even worse.
For some unknown reason, it seemed that someone wanted John to be right about the damn things being in here, though he had to admit he was lucky to an extent. To his right there were four drones, not mutated at all and probably as common as they could get, most probably just breed from something very weak and not really useful to give birth to anything unknown, maybe one of the large pack animals used for food… Whatever the case, they were roughly thirty, maybe forty meters away. That was a downer.
'Cant shot that fast…'
Quickly, John weighed his chances: To fight and survive? Zero, he was not a fast shooter and was not all that good with only ten days practice. The things were too close and, even if they looked malnourished for a creature that was by default thin, he was going to die if they got close enough. However, to climb the ladder and survive? It was a possibility, though he wasn't sure of how good it would be, those things climbed fast as hell if his info was right.
As you may guess, thinking under pressure took little time but also handed mixed results. He wasn't sure of what could happen, he had fought fast and vicious things in the sewers, but this was not what anyone could get used to, except if you were in the Marines and had the biggest asshole for a boss.
But for all his worries, there was something he hadn't accounted for beforehand: He was worried that it was only him and the Xenomorphs AND he was worried that the creatures were looking at him, while in fact there was something that had gotten much, much closer than the bugs.
*Shiiii-nk*
A blade, probably between fifteen to twenty centimeters in length, came in contact with John's chin, making him freeze. The Xenomorphs had been quiet, half sitting and only letting go of the initial hiss as if to warn him, however he hadn't noticed the ripples of movement in front of him, nor the heavy footsteps. He would've noticed the creatures sneaking to his side if he hadn't been so paranoid about everything to know that he was, indeed, right.
The blade pushed forward and John gulped, it was rubbing towards his throat very slowly and he knew that whoever was doing this, was waiting for him to do something. It was either defend or let the one in front of him kill him, because it was painfully obvious that whoever it was, he or she literally cared nothing if he died fighting or not, though the latter was quite tempting.
Xenomorphs close meant, however, that they were waiting for one to do something. They weren't here to help, they were here to hunt, much like the one in front of him, so he didn't really need to fight.
He just needed to give the third faction a reason to move in.
With a low growl, more a cacophony of mixed insults that his throat didn't wish to fully form, John took the blade with one hand, most probably taking its wielder by surprise (And also himself, as it cut deep with a single touch) before he delivered a kick. It seemed to knock him more than the one assaulting him though, as he found himself being thrown back against the ladder as the Xenomorphs hissed and jumped on top of a figure that was probably a head or two taller than he was, yet he could still see clearly through the air, not knowing what had been about to kill him.
Yet, what seemed as an advantage didn't come as such; the blade sliced clean through one of the Xenos' throat, decapitating it just before the monster managed to bite on one of the assaulter's legs. Another one had its arms crushed together against the nearby wall before a powerful lunge from the invisible one made his spine collapse alongside his ribcage, splattering acid blood around.
Instinct told him to fuck the show, so he turned tail and grabbed the ladder. A muffled cry of pain followed. His right arm had been cut deep in the palm, it was not serious for him, but it would sting for, give or take, twelve hours to a day. Pain was of little consequence though, for as he looked to the left, another pair of Xenos had joined and one seemed more interested on him than on helping its own kind.
'Too many fucking drones' His mind hissed as he climbed the ladder as if there was no tomorrow 'Need to get out'
As if agreeing with him, the Xenomorph that had focused on John started to climb behind him. He had fifteen steps of space behind him thanks to an adrenaline impulse, but a single second took two steps away from him. John had little choice but to go faster and hurt his hand after a few more seconds passed, since the thing was still much faster than him and it had decided to grab his leg, throwing a bite with its secondary jaw, narrowly missing his foot.
John took his pistol with his left arm, not caring for the pain that it gave to carry half the weight of the Xeno and his own on his right hand. The movement would be too fast for a person without an adrenaline rush to notice, but he fired two times in fast succession; the first missing by the world, but the second connecting with the thing's lower jaw as it moved away, ripping it away and splattering acid over the ladder.
A loud crack would follow the alien's wild flaying as it smeared the acid all over the metal walls, just a second before the ladder, and part of the construction, gave away to the corrosion as two heavy plates plunged down along the maimed and now corroded section of ladder, taking the alien with them and impaling the creature through its hips as it reached the bottom, only to crush its skull and smearing acid in a wide enough range to even hurt the invisible enemy. A roar mightier than he had ever heard made John understand that saving his own ass had only angered the one down there, that, and that he still had both his legs and his clothes untouched by the mightiest luck there is.
And luck runs out fairly quickly.
Careless and stupid, hadn't the human been there, there would be six trophies for the wall and not three messes, one utterly destroyed hard meat and wounds to the lower belly and right arm.
But noooo, she had to go and check out a weird thing that the mask said had both traces of the Kainde Amedha, yet was still human. Her matriarch had said nothing about this, in fact she had said that there should be nearly no humans left, much less in these structures.
If her shire saw her, he would be ALL, but proud. In fact if any of her sisters, or her mother, or, hell, anyone else, saw her, she would turn of many colors just thinking of what the hell she could make up as an excuse. Most of her kind would not want to lie so as to preserve honor, but she didn't want herself being humiliated more than anything else. It was a young one's thing, you know, an adolescent… and for humanoids it was usually the same no matter the species, though her kind were fairly more violent about these things.
Yet she had not been violent, swift or accurately enough to earn the respect needed to NOT be ashamed of this mess.
"You are too slow sis"
If there was any other word to define her status right now, she didn't know it, so she went with what she knew.
'Shit'
Sighing, she turned to see one of her brothers, and of the few males, that had accompanied the female clan to this hunt: Kahaba-Nuhd, or Kah for shorts. He and her other brother, alongside three of her sisters, where those that his father had permitted to go to this year's hunts to prove themselves, which basically meant the whole family.
Around three meters ten in height, Kah was a giant for his species, though it was so with a good, and sad, reason for him to be so different from the common Yautja. Being her brother only by father, like in many families, he had only passing features that looked like hers, for example the stripes on his back, which were black for him yet green for her. His eyes were purely blue and not as animalistic as hers, as hers were red near the iris and yellow at the end. He had small locks and his hair's color was light brown instead of the large locks of hair she had, of the normal black like coloration. Also his skin had little dots of dark brown, the rest being light brown or flesh colored in the chest, hers was a tainted brown/green with a good amount of very dark brown dots and slightly flesh like coloration in her belly only.
Kah was one of the two hybrids of human and Yautja in the clan and, like most males, he had the looks of his father, yet the vision of his mother. However it had been known that interspecies breeding could cause such mutations as Kah showed, namely the common human like vision instead of infrared spectrum, a more thoughtful approach to one's feelings instead of the slightly more animalistic (Yet civilized) approach of a true Yautja and, sometimes, abnormal heights (Such as one meter fifty to one eighty, which was smaller than even females, or gigantism in this case).
The mutation that Kah suffered complicated the birth and ended up killing his mother. It happened to some other pups, but as part human he couldn't live it down, which made him wish to become a medic even if first he had to show his skills in the hunt.
"For a hunter that WANTS to be a hunter, you have little skills to show"
Her brother chuckled as he came closer to show his copper like mask, the standard issue shape changed by fangs like protrusions at the front of it to add some personalization. For his size he had an ungodly amount of plate armor all over his body, not minding if his peers would ridicule him for his cowardly wish of protection, as he only cared for surviving to achieve his dream. It was for that reason that most his body was covered in armor, except his hands (equipped with the usual) and his feet.
Asides of his claws, he had no other weapon, not that being so huge and, dare she say, too strong to be considered normal, he needed any other weapon. Even being quite a peaceful Yautja he could break even a veteran's arm with little effort, no need to say what had happened to the Kainde Amedha that he had encountered.
"And you are a prick" She hissed to her brother, preferring to use the insults that he had familiarized himself more than his supposed native tongue. Kah was slightly obsessed with humans, something that had rubbed off on her "Why are you fallowing me again?"
"I said I wanted to explore the building" He shrugged as he came to pat his sister's head, and since she was barely two meters in height, it was easy for him "I found a lot of information in their computers. I suppose training against father's wishes to know their tech have helped. It seems the human you let go has been their latest experiment…"
"I didn't let him go…" She growled as she looked at her brother's back "He just surprised me…"
"Would've surprised me too sis, it would be easier to use my normal vision. The mask would probably not identify either body heat or pheromones correctly" He assured as he looked you the bloody remains to see the man escape and shut the hatch on his wake.
Pity.
"But as it is, we have to go" He let it slide as he looked at the golden like mask of his sister, which had a much sharper (In the literal sense of the word) edges than that of a male. She had also mesh instead of plating in most places, but for a female that was most common "That we have stumbled upon such common prey, even if they weren't pure, means we are far away from the nesting grounds"
"What about the human?"
"Char-Vhra" He chided, a smirk hidden behind the mask as he patted at his sister's shoulder cannon for her to understand there was something to do "Shall we go?"
"…" If she was a human, she would've sighed in annoyance, as it was, she simply turned "Let's go, but hope that we don't have to catch that human because it is messing with the hunt and what we were told to do"
With a path to her back, that almost got her on the ground, her brother just chuckled "Char, my dear, we are still young… should you really start talking like father and be all serious? You'll have all your life for that if you insist on going with the all female clan like you have been for the past two years"
Truth be told, mostly everyone outside Yautja society saw them (if they knew about them and survived long enough) to be merciless hunters that enjoyed the thrill of the hunt above all else, having it as some kind of ritual and honor system that had the strongest one in the lead.
Partially it was true, but the Yautja had the hunt to satisfy the need to kill and to fight, one need that was as dangerous to their own species as it was to everyone else. If one didn't satisfy that need, or if they didn't control it enough, they would kill mercilessly from kids to the old, from sick to those carrying unborn… Their society was usually gentle and pacific in their worlds, but when you were on a spaceship destined to head off for a hunt, the testosterone and the need to fight, combined with the ritualistic and nearly sacred side they entailed, made them show the most dangerous and brutal side of their species.
Yautja were coins with two very different faces, though in any case most humans would only see a brutish, yet highly advanced enemy. It was hard for one species, one that had believed to be the top of the food chain, to accept that they weren't alone and that they could be considered prey, trophies or even food by the most cruel of them, which was better than the slave alternative that some of the less… gentle clans or traitors to their own species would do with them.
All in all, a hunter had to be a powerhouse, very diligent in its kills and at least have a good handful of trophies; both to exchange for equipment and renown and to have for his/hers own pride and possession. The only reason that these two young ones had good equipment was that their father, now an Arbitrator (or hunter of the traitors, called Bad Bloods), had given away some of his fine possessions to have them equipped (As well as having a few of those favors that others owed to him, paid).
Char was the youngest of his daughters, and she knew that their father was ashamed of having sired so few and mostly females, so she wanted to take on the furious and brutal ways that his father showed to everyone else. She didn't want to humiliate his pride and honor showing how gentle he was through closed doors, which made most his mates have stronger genes than her sire did.
"I want to, and I am old enough to do as I please" Char finally took away from her brother "I'll make father proud"
She cloaked again and ran away from her more sensitive brother as the young Yautja chuckled behind his mask.
"Already did… and maybe I'll get you to cheer up father if all goes well" He smirked as he opened a compartment in his wristband, checking some of the notes he had found "Could be easy if I find… hmm… Or maybe not" Returning the papers, Kah looked back to the remains of the ladder "Still, it is worth a try, and it is part of the hunt anyway"
Grinning widely, he decides that it is time to give the human outside another jumpscare. Besides, while he needs to impress his father, he also needs to impress the matriarch of the clan he is in, and doing what she asked as a secondary objective of this not so natural hunt would help him. That said, it could still be a huge waste of time, or the passing grade to solve his problems, both things are very much possible.
'Still' He thinks as he flexes his massive legs 'He is bound to get into problems, which is bound to attract prey…' And then, he jumps.
John had been resting for a few minutes, engrossed in what he saw once he escaped the 'safe' haven that had been his house for the past ten days. He had never been out of the sewers for more than a few hours in some weird days when he needed food, maybe a day once in his life, but he had seen the cameras in the laboratory eyeing the whole city, one so massive that it was supposed to be, together with its twin, one of the best out there.
Considered the billions it had cost, and knowing that it was not the fault of the company that built it, John had to admit he felt… sad as he saw how it had ended.
The large skyscrapers, the more modest apartments, single houses here and there… A jungle of steel, concrete, rock and plastic, all of it destroyed with remains of cars littering the streets, some corpses still lying where they had felt, both from windows and stands as well as on the ground. Most of the remains of the city had bones of black like coloration from the water, the many fires that probably erupted and the usual shining blue sun.
Probably it was fitting for it to be night, and raining, though with the humidity of this place, rain was common, sometimes a nonstop event.
From here he could see the large building, the 'Krak Supermarket' that he was supposed to head to. For once, and knowing what had been inside, the word 'supermarket' didn't seem to be preposterous to him, as since he was little he had found humanity to not be so great as they thought. Still, from where he stood, it was one of the few buildings to be intact, more or less, and even a few lights could be seen.
A quick glance had told him that he would need to go through two apartments that were connected to the base through walkways, probably some late survivors that had tried to hide in the base. He would also need to go through one of the skyscrapers and, here he hoped he was wrong, go through ground level for a kilometer or two if there were no ways to go besides the storehouse that was near the mall.
It is only a small part of the city however, and farther away he can see gunfire, smoke and a big part of the city probably collapsed for real. What once had been a perfect construction lied now in ruins in so many places that he thought his old home as a five star hotel right now.
Problem being that both the sewers and the metro underground would be crawling with agitated wildlife, as well as Xenomorphs. That bit of idealization was really bad; he had to simply look to understand there was no way that he could go through the city's buildings at all times. In fact even the surface would probably be safe compared to the underground, but as it was there was really no way for him to go through it all, much less the survivors, without getting killed.
And he really needed survivors with him, more so if they reached a working ship.
Right now he wished he had that PDA with him. How he missed the darn thing now, mostly because of the map and the messages. Without the damn thing he had to rely on a lot of luck, and he had already used his fair share. Still there was the chance of him arriving at the place he was supposed to in a single day, with the downer of having to probably sneak around in buildings that had been corroded by acid and weakened by explosions no less, with the treat of having Xenomorphs catching him at any time.
*CRACK! BLAM!*
A shudder ran through John's spine. He was near the edge of the construction, just besides the walkway to the first building. Right now the mall seemed like one of those Ivory Towers his mother told him about when he was young, a place where someone powerful and magical had all the protection and solitude he needed.
As he looked back however, all he cared about said safe haven was for it to be REALLY safe and to be able to defend him from the thing that had literally ripped the steel off its hinges. That hatch was supposed to protect him from the invisible monster that had killed the Xenomorphs, and it had been torn like paper. He could see it for a split second, and he was amazed to see a literal giant emerging from the wreckage of whatever was left of the hatch, as well as three fourths of it scattered around.
Guttural chuckling told him all he needed to know about the thing: It was here to do more than simply amuse him, in fact he wouldn't have a head over his shoulders if he didn't start running, which he did, and was glad to discover nothing had ripped his feet as he was halfway through the walkway.
Of course, and to his shame once he realized it, the thing hadn't taken any part of his body simply because it couldn't step on a gnarly looking group of boards that connected a big ass hole in the wall of a building, treating with going down if something too heavy stopped on it. Yet he could see the ripples of movement on the other side as he gasped for air. It was maybe ten meters of distance, not much, as the roof of the Weyland-Yutani HQ extended towards the buildings around it. John was not sure if the thing would jump at him from where he was, but it was not going anywhere, probably waiting for him to move.
Sighing, and understanding he would need to give his back to his unknown assailant, John looked around the concrete walls, seeing a few corridors crumbled and many a room ripped open by explosions, acids or claw marks. If the thing wanted to come for him, he had the adrenaline and stamina to run for a bit more.
However he would need it for more than just running from this one hunter.
