Disclaimer

I do not own any rights or characters from Titan A.E., The Alien Anthology or any other movies/stories I may reference. Rated T for teen for mild langue and violence.

Special thanks to tmwillson3 for bata reading.

Cue the music: Still Breathing by Green Day off their new album Revolution Radio.

Chapter 1

Stuck In The Red

My mommy always told me there were no monsters, no real ones... But there are.

Lt. First Class Ellen Ripley previously died wiping out the Xenomorphs; now a clone of herself, she though she had finally wiped them out for good. She did not expect that there had been more than one USM research vessel with more of her new 'family'. Call would of told her, right?

"Call, I know that's Earth, but something seems... Off... About it," Ripley continued watching out of the broken window of The Betty.

"They never told you?" Call grunted. "Those bastards... Considering you died two hundred years ago, a few years ago we met another alien species called Drej. They weren't hostile at first; they even seemed to want to help humanity. All that changed though; then they blew up Earth."

"Are these Drej still around?" Ripley turned her attention to Call. "What are they?"

"No, they are not around anymore," Call was a little amused. "They weren't like your bad guys. No acid blood, no need for hosts. They were pure energy."

"Good, 'cause I'm sick of bug hunts, and low IQs."

"You're not sure are you?" To tell the truth Call wasn't so sure herself either. Some of the data she discovered about the Xenomorphs was encrypted in a strange way; it also seemed like a part of it was missing or not included.

Ripley smiled and chuckled. "I'd be lying if I said I was; I'm the eighth clone of myself. As weird as that sounds."

Call chuckled," and I'm not Mecha."

Meanwhile not all the drifter colonies had returned to New Earth (Planet Bob). At least two never made it back to Earth, and there had been no contact with them since a week ago either.

In their rocketship turned home, on top their cliff, Cale and Akima thought they could rest with the Drej gone. But they couldn't ignore the missing colonies. They heard of a ship coming in; perhaps they knew some thing.

"E-A-T... Cale, this guy's infuriating," Akima griped. "It's like he doesn't really want to come back down to Earth."

"He mustn't like those frozen burritos." Cale joked.

Akima rolled her eyes. "I could have swore I heard him call Earth a shithole under his breath," Akima frowned. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked if they knew anything about the missing drifter colonies until we could ask in person; it's too late now. Akima thought to herself.

"Akima, not everyone is going to be as fond of Earth as you. You held on to hope with those stories," Cale took Akima's hand, then pulled her into a hug. "That's amazing, that's what I love about you."

On The Betty in the cockpit Johner and Vriess shared a laugh.

"Shit... Hey Ripley." Johner called over the radio. He knew she wasn't going to like the news he had, because he didn't; because of what it could mean.

"Memory's as good as always,"Ripley replied. "So, what's going on."

"Well... I was asked about a couple of missing drifter colonies," Johner turned to face the door.

Ripley and Call returned to the cockpit. "I think I know where you going with this."

"It can't be," Call said with confusion. " I hope you two aren't thinking what I think you're thinking."

"Oh-ho boy am I thinking what you think I'm thinking little Call," Johner said with amusement. "Is it possible?" He looked at Ripley and asked more seriously.

"Probabilities, not possibilities. Everything's possible," Ripley answered. "As I told Call, I'm the eighth clone of myself."

Vriess readied The Betty to land. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked rhetorically.

Back in their home on Earth, Akima smiled at Cale. "Cale... I love you, too, and thanks."

Cale reluctantly went back to holding Akima's hand. "We'd better go. The ship will be landing soon. Korso and Stith already prepared the landing pad."

"It's still hard to trust him," Akima let go of Cale's hand and started to leave. "Gune thinks so, too."

"And to think it was Preed we never should have trusted," Cale mused as he followed Akima. Cale didn't think he could ever trust Korso again, but after Korso rescued him when he was pinned by the Drej stinger, he started to reconsider. Besides Korso and his dad had been friends; his dad would not have wanted him to hold a grudge.

"Not funny Cale. When Korso and Preed... You and Korso... I thought... Let's just get going," Akima sighed.

They arrived just as The Betty landed.

As if things weren't bad enough for Cale and Akima being elected as leaders of New Earth, they hadn't even set up a permanent new government yet. Little did they know just how much worse it was going to get.

As everyone came off The Betty, they stood, and wheeled in front of a body close to the entry.

Cale and Akima looked at each other, puzzled. What was going on? Could these people be trusted; they looked like mercenaries. Well actually one of them was an android, as far as Cale could tell.

Korso had stayed with Cale and Akima.

Stith had gone back to the Valkyrie.

"You have missing drifter colonists," Ripley said with mild interest. "How long have they been missing?" She asked.

Something wasn't right with the woman who spoke. She seemed way more dangerous than the others.

Cale thought about it for a while, "About a week or two," He crossed his arms.

Korso brought a hand up to his chin. "Do you know what's going on then?"

Johner crossed his arms, too. "You could say that."

Ripley put her hands on her hips, "If it is what we think it is; yes, we do know. A company I use to work for, they were studying a very nasty alien species called a Xenomorph."

Call readjusted her clothes, "Yes, Weyland-Yutani, but it was the people on the USM Auriga; a medical research vessel with the United Systems Military that cloned Ripley here. I discovered some data of their plans to clone her and use the Xenomorph inside her for bio-weapons. I was going to kill her before they took the alien out of her; I was to late."

Cale, Akima, and Korso were surprised to hear that big... no... HUGE tidbit. Weyland-Yutani had a hand in creating all of the drifter colonies. Could the USM have given some of those things back to Weyland-Yutani? Was that what happened to the missing drifter colonies? They sure hoped not.

Ripley looked down at, and ran her fingers over the tattoo of the number eight on her left forearm. "I don't remember much from before I was cloned. I remember that thing wiped out my first crew in less than twenty-four hours. That I died wiping them out on a prison I crash landed on; I remember that a little girl and two men died when we crashed. I don't remember any faces or names, or anything else."

"Sounds like they grabbed what they could before somebody else beat them to it," Korso mused

"It will be a little hard for anyone else to get their hands on a Xenomorph, and I have the data. The Company's hard copy and the Xenomorphs were destroyed with them," Call was a little smug.

"Doesn't mean a thing robot," Johner unfurled his arms, and stepped closer to Call. "Until we know for sure those things didn't hitch a ride on those drifter colonies."

"Call, Johner, enough." Ripley just glanced at them, and they shut up.

Whoa she is scary, real scary, Thought Cale. "Well, I guess we need to make sure then. The first drifter colony is The Montier, though it was one of many drifter colonies. I wasn't so lucky to end up there, or any other drifter colony. I ended up on Tau 14 with my friend Tek."

"We haven't introduced ourselves; I'm Captain Joseph Korso," Korso stated. "Those two can introduce themselves."

Cale rolled his eyes,"I'm Cale, and this is Akima." He gestured to himself and Akima.

Akima raised her hand and gave a quick wave.

"I guess I'm the only one left to introduce themselves, too, go figure. I'm Vriess." Vriess gave a quick wave of his hand from his wheelchair.

"With introductions out of the way," Ripley mused. "When do we leave."

"You'll help us then?" Cale raised and eyebrow.

Ripley nodded.

Johner raised an eyebrow, and acted like he was thinking about it; of course if Ripley agreed he'd go along with her, they were sort of like an item. He gave a haphazard nod.

"Affirmative," Call said.

Vriess sighed. "What the hell, why not."

"Alright, good," Cale smirked. "Then we left yesterday."

Notes

Well that's the beginning of my new story. I am getting excited about writing this story, I think I am going to enjoy writing this. If you're wondering about Christie from Alien Resurrection, I may or may not bring him back, too.