BLEACHED ALIEN
No, the Aliens aren't literally bleached, this is a crossover, though that should have been obvious to you anyway. This is a new project, a joint venture with another great author, the Layman. This is almost an exact replica of the movie plot, but it is not word for word...We're better than that! Hopefully all goes well and you enjoy it. Please read and review, it means a lot to us to read your comments.
The Discovery
--Aboard the Nostromo--
The light musical hum of machinery did nothing to wake the sleeping passengers. Trapped in a dreamless artificial sleep, the small crew lay frozen in their capsules. Cryosleep was necessary to survive the long trips between planets. The supplies on board had never been sufficient enough to satisfy the needs of the whole crew for the long trips there and back. The solution; freeze them for several days until they reached their destination.
The ships computer received a signal, one that it could not ignore. In following with proper protocol it undid the hatches on the cryo-tubes and one by one, the crew awoke restlessly. They climbed out of the glass-walled capsules and got dressed in bland white uniforms. Even the ship's cat, a black tabby named Yoruichi, began to stretch in it's own pod.
"Hey captain, when you're done putting on your eyebrows how about giving us a hand with those shipping reports?" a young woman said as she hopped out of her cryotube. Her short black hair was parted uniformly though a stray bang found it's way to her face, dividing it in half. She snickered at her own little joke and waited for the captains response.
The red-head looked up from a mirror and frowned. "Stop talking about my eyebrows like that, Kuchiki! I don't care what you say, it looks cool!"
"Why don't you just get the actual tattoos? It's not like you fainted from the pain the first time you tried...." The lead engineer grinned beneath his white and green hat.
"Shut up Kisuke! At least I don't wear a stupid hat everywhere I go!" The captain closed his eyes and sighed. "Keep it together, you are the captain..." He whispered under his breath.
"So why did the 'Captain Commender' wake us up? We're still pretty far from Earth, aren't we?" another member of the crew asked timidly. She hid behind the others and looked around nervously. Her chestnut brown hair was straight and came down to her lower back. She fiddled with the brown locks while she waited for the answer.
"I don't know, I'll go check it out. You guys go have breakfast." Captain Abarai Renji wandered off to the consoles while the other eight crew members trudged into the dining room. Bland, white plastic chairs sat beside a bland, white plastic table in a bland, white walled room. It made them feel even more tired, but they struggled on.
They sat down and looked at the questionable meals set out for them. A grey sludge that would barely count as prison food was served in white bowls. They stared at it for a while before eating.
"It may look like crap and taste like a monkeys ass but at least it's food!" A large bulky engineer said, setting a bowl down in his spot. "Which means Miss Inoue Orihime made it," he said as he shovelled the grey sludge into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
"Geez Tessai, haven't you heard of chewing?!" Kisuke said jokingly. Tessai mock punched his co-worker in the arm and chuckled when Urahara cried out.
"Would you two clowns spot it!" The black haired girl scolded them. "How could you become engineers with such small brains?"
"Sorry, Miss Kuchiki..." Tessai muttered. Kisuke leaned over and whispered something in Tessai's ear.
"Hey! My cooking's not that bad!" Orihime stated indignantly as she entered the room. The two engineers snickered like school kids and Rukia groaned.
"God, I can't wait until we get back and I can have a break from you two!" Rukia flicked back her raven hair and took a bite out of an artificial meat.
"Don't be too hard on them, Warrant officer Kuchiki." A man with brown hair glanced over at the two bickering engineers. "They may not be the brightest sparks in the fire, but their aid is necessary."
Rukia sighed. "I guess you're right Aizen..."
"Of course I am; now calm down and let us enjoy our meal." Aizen tucked into the inorganic sludge and made no indication of whether he liked it or not.
They ate in silence until they overheard footsteps. The captain walked in to the curious gazes of the whole crew. He looked around at the assortment of people and then looked out a window at the dark expanse of space.
"So what's the story, morning glory?" Kisuke asked. Tessai punched him.
"It's a beacon...of sorts..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rukia cocked her head.
"Well, it's just a series of beeps and something else, but I can't work it out." Renji led them to a console in the cockpit where he pressed a blue button. A strange beeping noise came out from a speaker and an unusual crackling noise played underneath. Everyone looked around nervously.
Renji groaned, "We have to follow Company orders and investigate."
"Why?" Tessai replied arrogantly.
"Because we have to! If you want your cut then you'd better follow orders!" Renji snapped. Tessai muttered under his breath and looked away. "Inoue and Kuchiki, you can steer the ship. Tessai and Kisuke, you two clowns can busy yourselves down below. Make sure the rigging is secure and such." Nobody moved. "Come on, move it!" The crew snapped into action.
Rukia and Orihime sat down at the control panel. The ship was cumbersome and was hard to steer. Inoue pressed a series of buttons and pulled a lever before taking the wheel and guiding the ship towards the source of the beacon.
A dull little planetoid only a short distance away. It didn't look like anything special, but there had to be something there to have a transmission coming from it.
The ship buckled as it struggled to turn. "We're experiencing difficulties. The refinery is too heavy! It's being drawn into the planet's orbit!"
"Go faster!" Rukia instructed. "Faster! Keep going!"
"We're getting pulled in!" Inoue shrieked. "I can't keep it steady!!" As the ground below came into view they noticed a large object in the distance. It looked like a ship, only a very different one. The odd design led them to believe it was from a foreign nation, though it was still confusing. Inoue put it out of mind for now and tried to stabilize the ship as it hurtled towards the ground.
"Hold onto something!" Rukia yelled as the ship rolled in mid air. Inoue grappled with the controls while screaming and managed to steady it before it hit a rockface. The side of the refinery grazed the low cliff and the ship crashed through small rocky outcrops as it headed closer and closer to the ground. The vessel landed roughly and Inoue fell forwards onto the controls while her co-workers fell to the floor behind her.
When the ship stopped rocking, they got up and studied the area around them. The engineers crawled out from a hole in the floor and cursed.
"What the hell was that?!" Tessai roared.
"The ship was too heavy to get out of the orbit so we had to do an emergency landing." Rukia explained. "Is everyone okay?"
The four companions around her nodded. Aizen and Hanatoro stepped out of another room and confirmed they were fine.
"Maybe the beacon was a distress signal?" Aizen suggested. "There was a crashed ship out there."
"I know, I saw it on the way in," Orihime concured. "I didn't really recognize it, but it looked like it crashed pretty recently."
"Yeah, it looks pretty strange though, it's not a company vessel." Renji commented.
Rukia looked at the crew and frowned. "Maybe we should send a group over there to investigate. While they're doing that, I can try to decipher that signal. It sounds like a message of some kind..."
"Good idea. Inoue, Hanatoro, we'll go investigate that ship." Renji walked towards a space helmet before turning to face the two engineers. "Alright, the rest of you, I want this ship fixed so we can get out of here when we get back. Aizen, we'll keep in touch over the radios. Rukia, get to work decoding that transmission. We'll be back shortly." With that, Renji, Inoue, and Hanataro stepped into their exploration suits and sealed their helmets.
The trio went into the decompression chamber and waited for the internal and external pressure to equalize. When the decompression was complete, the outer hatch opened with a low hum and a fierce gust of wind billowed in. Renji reflexively shielded his face from the dust which was hurled at him.
The land was barren made up of mostly dust and rocks. The outline of the strange ship stood out in the distance. The exploration team set off towards it, forcing idle small talk as they made their way to the crash site.
"Where do you think it's from?" Inoue asked absent-mindedly.
"I don't know, but none of the ships from Earth look like that..." Renji placed a hand on his helmet because his chin was trapped inside the helmet.
"You mean it's...extraterestrial?" Hanatouro gasped.
"Possibly, but I'm not ruling anything out until we've checked it out. Come on!" Renji picked up his pace and forced the others to do the same. It took ten minutes to reach the giant ship. The odd shape was asymmetrical and had pieces jutting out from it with no apparent reason or purpose.
The group stared at the baffling structure. No sane human mind would create such a bizarre vessel. But someone, or something, did.
Renji's suit beeped and an inbuilt radio transmitted a message from their ship.
"Captain, are you at the ship yet?" The voice was crackly, yet Renji knew it was Aizen.
"We're right outside. I thought you had visuals?"
"Something's blocking the lenses." Aizen explained simply. Renji wiped the lens of a small camera on the side of his helmet. Aizen confirmed he could see now. The captain ordered the rest of the exploration squad to clean their visors as they went inside.
As soon as they entered the ship, the air grew cold...incredibly cold. Inoue shivered even though she was wearing a hevailly insulated suit.
They proceeded onwards through two large, expansive rooms, both which seemed to be completely bare. Broken machinery littered the floors, though none of it seemed to have a readily apparent use.
"This can't be real!" Hanatoro gasped, gawking at the strange equipment.
The trio split up for several minutes to scan the area until Inoue squealed with delight. "I found a door!" She played with a control panel while the others reached her. After a few minutes of trial and error, the door jerked open. A cloud of dust covered them and the trio had to wipe their visors again.
Inoue coughed despite the fact no dust could get into her helmet.
Renji squinted through the dust and gasped. "What the hell?! Aizen can you see this?"
"Um, not exactly...What should I be seeing?" Aizen asked mechanically.
"That...thing!!" Renji pointed for the benefit of his two companions and they all gazed at the huge object in the centre of the room.
"It looks like a...gun, or something?" Inoue muttered.
"No, it's...it's a...lifeform..." Hanatoro wandered over to the huge 'thing'. It was an animal, yet it's skin was textured like steel. At a glance it looked like it was part of some special machine instead of an independent organism.
The creature was propped up against a strange seat. It's arms were spread out and it was sitting limply in the chair. It's stomach was ripped open, though there was something wrong about the wound on it's stomach; it looked like it had been torn from the inside...
"This is..." Renji trailed off, staring wide eyed at the dead alien lifeform.
"What on Earth is that?" Aizen asked.
"You're the scientist! I was hoping you could answer that one!" Renji snapped.
Inoue ran a hand over the creatures icy, metallic flesh. She shrieked and jumped back only to be glared at by the captain.
"I would be careful if I was you." Aizen warned.
"Why? This thing is as dead as it could be." Renji muttered.
"Yes, but that means something must havekilled it. Be extra careful." Aizen sounded serious.
Renji felt sweat roll down his forehead. "Well, maybe we should come back?"
"No!" Aizen growled. Renji jumped from the surprise. "You are the captain! Surely you know what to do when you find something of potential interest to the company! You must investigate!"
"But, we shouldn't risk our lives. If it's dangerous then-"
"Captain, you will be fine. Check out the rest of the ship and then come right back."
"Are you okay Aizen?" Renji asked, raising an eyebrow even though no-one would see it.
"Perfect, Captain. Why shouldn't I be?" Aizen answered mechanically.
Renji shrugged and instructed his team to check out the ship.
They split up again and cautiously wandered around the expansive room. Inoue gazed at the dead creature in shocked awe while the others conducted their search.
Hanatoro cast his gaze over a small hole in the wall. He ducked to get through, and found a larger hole on the other side. This one in the ground.
"Hey guys, over here! I found a lower level!" Renji ran in first and whistled when he saw the huge underground level.
"This ship is even bigger than it looks from outside..." Renji reached into his back pack and pulled out a rope. The small team set up a makeshift elevator out of a few more supplies while Hanatoto studied the hole.
"This hole should not be here. It looks like acid or something burned through it...but what could possibly do that?"
"Well, tell us if you find out." Renji hurled a torch at the weak-looking man and saluted as Hanatoro lowered himself down.
Armed with only a torch, the scared young man wandered deeper into the cavern.
Meanwhile, back on the Nostromo, Rukia tapped rapidly on her keyboard. She replayed the transmission over and over again and tried to get the ships numerous programs to analyze it further. She played it several more times, and then gasped.
"Oh no!" She ran to Aizen, struggling for breath. "Aizen! That message...It's a warning!"
"What?" Aizen asked distractedly.
"The message isn't an S.O.S, it's a warning. It's telling us to stay away from here!"
"Well it's a bit late now." Aizen muttered snidely.
"Tell them to come back!" Ruia demanded.
"No."
"Why not?!" Rukia crossed her arms.
"Because we lost contact five minutes ago." Aizen said with a wave of his hand.
"What?! That's it, I'm going to get them myself!"
"You can't."
"Yes I can, while Renji is gone, I am in charge and if I want to go, I go." Rukia explained confidently while getting into an exploration suit.
"Rukia, you aren't going out there! If it really was a warning, I'm sure they'll realise that long before you reach them!" Aizen snapped. His face still looked the same despite his angry outburst. Rukia glared at him in silence for a moment before getting out of the suit.
"Damn you.... If something goes wrong it's all your fault!" Rukia warned.
"Don't worry, Warrant officer Kuchiki...nothing will go wrong." Aizen smiled wickedly.
To Be Continued...
Layman here, how are you all! I hope you're all liking mine and Alex's attempt at this crossover/parody. The Impeccable Mr. McMullen actually wrote most of this chapter, I just fixed some minor mistakes and "Bleachified" it a bit.
But anyways, please review this. If you like Bleach or early Alien, than you'll probably like this. He and I are both working hard on this, so please let us know you appreciate it.