THE KING
Chapter 1.
Recovery.
The marines squinted in the harsh light of Tyrus IX. There was little to see, at least on the surface. The bleak, craggy hills seemed devoid of life of any kind, and sergeant Arturo Gomez took that as a good sign. The outbreak back at the mining camp had delivered more than enough 'life' to deal with, and cost him nearly thirty men and twelve settlers to put down...
"Sarge," Private Anderson broke into Gomez' revery, "Why are we..." "Because that's our orders!" Gomez growled, "Weyland-Yutani pays ours checks. They want it alive." He paused bitterly, it seemed as if the whole world had grown silent. Gomez wanted to just carpet-bomb the hills into dust, but the powers-that-be insisted, very persuasively, that they take the thing alive. Having seen what these creatures were capable of, the marines who'd survived the encounter didn't want to think what those money-grubbing parasites would do with a live xenomorph. But they were already in hot water for destroying the eggs, and they needed to salvage something, or their careers were over.
"How can something so big be so hard to find?" Johnson lowered his gun and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Never lower your guard, private! I've buried enough men this mission!" Gomez barked, and Johnson immediately put brought his gun to ready. "Over here! I've found it!" Riley's voice cut through the warm, still air .
It was twenty-five feet tall if it was an inch, with an even longer tail, but it was hard to tell, the creature was lying prone on the ground, weakly hissing at the men and women who surrounded it with guns at ready. "I told you we needed it alive Riley!" Riley shook her head, "I didn't shoot it, sarge. This is how I found it." Gomez waved Carter back, the man was standing within reach of that powerful tail. "He's starving" Carter said sagely, "There's nothing out here for him to eat."
"He?" The creature struggled to rise, hissed defiantly at the humans who surrounded it. Gomez squinted, but he couldn't see anything in the usual area to mark it as a male. It looked a lot like that queen who'd killed nine of his men before they managed to blast her and the whole egg chamber to hell... Then he took a good look at the head, huge, fluted openings on either side of the massive, eyeless head, two long horns or tusks flanking the mouth. The Male. The King. The Hive-Father. He'd heard rumors, he'd honestly thought the things didn't exist. But there was no denying it now...
"Ready the tranqs." Gomez orders, "This guys our ticket out of this hell-hole."
Two days later, Dr. Richard Vree, earth's foremost xeno-parasitologist, simply stared in awe at the mighty beast that lay before him, safely separated by an unbreakable cage. Even starved, he could sense the majesty and power of the xenomorph king. He longed to step inside the cage, run his hand over that mighty, ebony skull, but he wasn't ready to die just yet. He signaled an android assistant, "Bring in the cattle..." he spoke in a hushed tone, like a child trying not to wake his sleeping father, "at least three..."
To be continued...