A/N: An important notice about this story: A friend of mine suggested I write an intermission story filled with little one-off shorts, something to keep the series alive until I get back to it properly. It also gives me a chance to do a time lapse kind of thing and add in scenes which wouldn't fit into Aliens: Insurrection without an annoying quantity of time skips. This will be updated randomly, as I come up with the stories, so expect long gaps and such. Because the main plot will take place in the next entry, these shorts will contain mostly character development, some plot, and a little action. Also, the order in which I release the stories might not be chronological, so expect a few time jumps.
Without further ado, the introductory short:
Silence. Blank stares. Neither daring to make a move or peel their eyes away from what lay beyond the doorway. Jake and Advena looked awkward, crammed into the small doorway side-by-side, unmoving and silhouetted by the light at their backs and the darkness laid out before them.
"Well?" Advena demanded finally. Jake, still unable to tear his eyes away, either because of the sight that had his attention, or the desire not to make eye contact with his alien girlfriend, remained silent, mind reeling for a response. "You don't like it?"
"Uh, well, I mean…"
"You hate it."
"Of course not, it's just… maybe we should have talked about this beforehand?"
"I wanted it to be a surprise…"
"Well, you did a good job of that," Jake muttered under his breath, though he was well aware that Advena had heard the quiet remark anyway.
"I worked really hard on this…"
"I know, and it's nice. It's good. It's great, okay? I like it – I love it. Great job, I'm uh, proud of you…"
"Don't patronise me, Jacob." Oh boy, the full name. Advena never used his full first name without that grave, sullen or grim undertone to accompany it hand-in-hand to Jake's mind. The human ex-marine sighed, finally shifting his eyes so they were pointed at the floor.
"I mean, it's our bedroom, 'Vena. We need to sleep in there – I need to sleep in there. And now it's all… sticky. And humid. And dark. And uh, a little odorous, to be brutally honest."
"Don't you 'Vena me. As a matter of fact, you don't need to sleep here, there's a perfectly good couch in the living room if you can't bear to sleep with a slimy alien."
"Oh come on, don't make this a race thing!" Jake whined.
"It is a race thing though! This is my culture! I did this because I love and trust you, I believed that you'd have the decency to respect it."
"Look, I can see you put a lot of work into this, and it looks very nice, alright? But humans aren't made to sleep in these conditions – it's detrimental to my health. Can you really blame me for being a little unenthused?"
"Unenthused? Unenthused? No, unenthused is the word I'd use to describe how I feel during our sex! You're just being plain disparaging!" The Xenomorph angrily slammed the door shut behind her, cutting off Jake's view of their resin-coated bedroom and separating the duo from one another.
"Ouch," Jake grimaced quietly. "Can I at least have a blanket then?" Jake sighed again when he was met only with more silence. He gingerly shuffled away from their room and into the living room, where he would spend the night on their springy couch, huddling beneath his coat for warmth. After all, experience had taught him well to recognise when a woman wanted to be left alone.
~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~
Advena wasn't in the house when Jake woke up the next morning; she had sealed their bedroom shut with some resin on the door as her parting gift. Jake decided it would be his mission today to track her down and try to smooth things out. It felt… uncomfortable, being unable to feel her presence through the link, or the trickle of emotions which would always rub off on him. Every day of his life would have felt like this a mere few months ago, but now it felt completely unnatural, and waking up without Advena's warm body curled up against his side was unnerving. All the little things which he took for granted were suddenly blaringly obvious now that they were missing.
Jake decided his first order of business would be to call Tyler and Jeica, to see if 'Vena had shown up at either of their houses, but as his hand fell on an empty shelf. He patted the varnished wood for a few seconds, searching for the phone they kept there, but all he got for his troubles was a fine layer of dust on his hand. He stared up at the empty shelf for a few moments, before something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. He directed his gaze directly above him, and there, stuck to the ceiling by a thin strip of resin, was their phone. Jake screwed his eyes shut, took a deep breath, and managed to keep his composure. It wasn't too far of a walk to his friends' houses anyway. Jake took a minute to shower and change into clean clothes before setting off.
The ex-marine trotted through the outer streets of the small city, which in the rural district he lived in, were merely trails of hard, bare dirt, and were mostly devoid of vehicles, as everything was within walking distance. The small community knew each other reasonably well, despite the short time that had passed since Jake and his rebellious company had arrived, and so he was offered a few waves or nods of greeting, which he absently returned. As he walked, the populace began thinning, and the houses grew more and more sparse, the pseudo-roads giving way to patches of scruffy grass, which eventually melted into luscious fields of green.
The grass swished gently beneath his boots, a soft breeze ruffling his hair and the few leafy trees which were dotted around at irregular intervals. As Jake crested a small hill, an ungainly metal oblong came into sight, surrounded by tall, skinny towers, fences and a couple of hefty machines. Beside the grey oblong was a wooden framing of some kind which hadn't been there last time Jake had visited. Looked like something was being built there. Regardless, Jake arrived at the oblong, which was in actual fact a large shuttle, outfitted with the facilities necessary for a long-term mobile command base. He knocked on the small airlock hatch and waited.
"Was anyone important supposed to visit today?" a whisper from inside demanded.
"Uhh… nope. Nothing I can remember. Maybe Parker?"
"Parker?" the first voice hissed. He then cleared his throat and spoke up. "Go away! We're busy!"
"Tyler!" Jake snapped. "It's me." Footsteps, then a metallic clunk and the door creaked open a few inches. A young man wearing a stained white lab coat and thick, rectangular goggles peered out through the gap suspiciously.
"What do you want?"
"Have you seen Advena around?"
"Nope." And then the door clanged shut. Jake shook his head and stepped away, turning to head back into the city, when the door groaned open once more. "Wait, why? Is she okay?" Typical Tyler, Jake thought as he turned back to face the scientist. Tyler didn't care much for Jake himself – probably because he was still a little sour over the attempted murder back on Reveles station, and the kidnapping – but he and Advena were rather close.
"Yeah, she's fine, physically at least. She got really mad at me last night though, and now she won't even talk to me." Tyler sighed dramatically, letting the door swing fully open so he could lean on its frame.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing! I mean, it wasn't that big of a deal. She covered our bedroom in that resin stuff, and I just didn't think it was a good idea."
"Well, why not? That isn't easy to do, you know. And, it's an expression of her trust – she's making a nest for you both, a proper nest. It's her way of feeling safe and settled, rather than constantly on guard and on the run like we have been. It's her way of making this place her home."
"Has she already been here today and told you about it?" Jake asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes. What he'd said hadn't sounded dissimilar to what Advena told him the previous night.
"Uh, hello? We've been over this; I haven't seen her today."
"Well, you sound just like her, prattling on about how hard it is to do and trust displays like that." Tyler raised an eyebrow and crossed his arm, a little taken aback by how Jake was acting. Jake hated that look – that was the look you gave a spoilt child who was throwing a temper tantrum.
"That's because Sal explained it to me when he did it to my bedroom, and I felt how exhausted he was after that ordeal. Needless to say, I topped in bed that night."
"Okay, one, TMI man. And two, you can actually sleep like that? That stuff makes rooms more humid than a bloody rainforest! Isn't it really sticky and sweaty and gross in there?"
"Dude, it's called a dehumidifier." Jake blinked.
"What?" he croaked finally.
"A dehumidifier. We have one plugged into the back wall, near our bed. It sucks the excess moisture out of the air, keeps things nice and cosy."
"Oh… haha, didn't realise that was a thing…" Jake trailed off nervously as a quiet beeping filled the air. Tyler fished a PDA out of his pocket and silenced the disturbance, before swiping his hand across its screen a few times, studying the information displayed.
"That's because you're an idiot. Now, I wasn't kidding about being busy, so if we're done here…"
"Yeah," Jake confirmed, before pausing, remembering Advena's final remark to him. "But, uh… j-just out of curiosity, how's your sex life going? With Sal?" Jake asked tentatively. Tyler arched an eyebrow at him, glancing up from his PDA for a moment in order to give the ex-marine a confused stare, not quite sure what to make of such a question. So caught off-guard he was, he forgot to act snide and patronising.
"Umm… good, I guess? Thanks for asking?"
"Like, er, how does it compare? To human partners you've had?"
"Wait… are you… trying to discreetly compare dicks with my boyfriend? That would be hilarious if it wasn't sad, and a little creepy."
"I'm just curious, you know, eying up the competition to make sure Advena doesn't stray. Us guys are always worrying about that kinda stuff, right?" Jake half-heartedly gave Tyler a boyish nudge with his elbow, earning himself an unimpressed stare.
"Well, if you must know, Sal's really packing down there."
"Packing?" Jake gulped.
"Yeah, like, you ever heard the expression 'hung like a horse'? Xenos take that to a whole new level. And the shape, the shape's important too. They have like, nubs and ridges and stuff. Twice as stimulating as they are interesting to look at."
"Uh-r-right. Cool. Thanks for the info… the intel… the valuable specs… ahem… I'm gonna go now. Later." Tyler cracked a grin, standing with his hands loosely on his hips as he watched Jake scramble away.
"Nubs and ridges?" Sal inquired as he slunk out of the shadows of the doorway.
"I mean, it's got those little bumpy bits on the underside, so it's kinda true…"
"Hung like a horse?" Sal reminded him.
"Buuuut mostly I was just fucking with him," Tyler admitted while flashing a proud grin to his snickering boyfriend.
~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~
Jeica sighed and slouched slightly as she ran her tired eyes over the low holo-table before her. Its shiny black surface was sliced into small squares by neon blue grid lines, each with a miniscule piece of text floating above it with coordinates and designations. Several planets and ship schematics were hovering high above the table's surface, each sharing the flickering blue hue and lined with walls of text and numbers. Resting her palms on the surface to better hold her weight, she glanced up at the other occupant of the dim room; Lieutenant Parker.
"So, what were you thinking?" he inquired, breaking the suffocating silence.
"If we pulled all the troops out of Gen'ga and Everent, we could have them fall back to the Yatzu system's frontier. Weyland would have to back off to get reinforcements, then we can send them to the nearest planet-haven. Preferably one with a dry dock – it's risky enough shipping supplies to launch the 'Indictor, I don't much fancy the Corporation figuring us out and tracking the shipments to all our safehouses."
"So, I'll tell the General we don't want his troops then?" Parker chuckled. Jeica grinned warily and smoothed her hair back, almost forgetting to catch her cap as she mistakenly shoved it off her head.
"I just don't think we can risk the Corp following them back here – we'll lose the only Xeno Hive we have."
"Ah, yes, about that. The Xenos are getting anxious to build a permanent home, but without a Queen, they just keep bickering and fighting with one another. We should organise something to choose a representative of both –" A curt knock on the door interrupted them. Jeica raised an eyebrow, which earned her a shrug from her companion. She waltzed around the table, hitting the off switch as she neared the room's door, before buzzing it open, revealing their visitor.
"Uh, is this a bad time?" Jake asked awkwardly.
"Actually," Jeica hummed thoughtfully, casting a glance at Parker which confirmed to her he was thinking the same, "this would be a perfect time for you and 'Vena to join us."
"Er, that's the thing," Jake murmured embarrassedly. "I can't find her. I was hoping you'd have seen her around."
"Not recently, sorry," Jeica informed him. "She visited my house this morning to take a stroll with Mo', but that's all I've seen of her."
"Did she say where she was going?"
"The forest, I think. Geez, she didn't leave a note or anything?" Jake scratched the back of his neck awkwardly whilst averting his eyes.
"Must have slipped her mind."
"Riiiiight," Jeica drawled sceptically. However, she didn't press the matter, and instead made her way back to the holo-table. "Well, if you're gonna go look for her, shut the door on your way out. We don't want any prying eyes in here." Jake nodded and thumbed the door closed behind him, sighing drearily as he leaned against the cold, concrete wall of the underground bunker complex. He weighed his options: he could try his luck in the forest, or think up someone else she might have stopped by and visit them instead for more clues. Either way, the claustrophobic corridors weren't helping, so he made his way outside and leaned against the bunker entrance in the sunlight.
"Sir?" a timid marine asked tentatively, both hands clutched to his chest protectively. Jake nodded him the go-ahead. "Civilian by the name of Tyler on the line, insists that he speak to you." Jake quickly leapt up off the wall and offered his hand to the soldier.
"Yeah, yeah, uh, hand it over." The marine did as he was commanded, quickly handing over a small radio he'd had pressed against his sternum before scampering off, likely on another low-priority errand. "Tyler? Got news for me?" Jake implored eagerly.
"Yeah, plenty of it. You forgot your fucking phone, and contacting you is a nightmare with all these shitheads telling me: 'nooooo, he's busy right now, noooooo, can I help you instead?'. Took them sixteen fucking calls before they got it through their thick skulls that I wanted you in particular. Rude pricks kept hanging up on me too."
"I can't imagine why," Jake drawled.
"Because you need to train your lapdogs better. Anyway, I've run a couple of tests on some new hardware, and I'd like to move on to the real thing, but these guys aren't letting me into the spaceport control tower; they keep saying 'no civilians allowed', no matter how many times I tell them they're all useless asshats and I'm the only person doing anything worth shit around here. I need the communications tower on that thing to conduct long-range field work, so could you please tell these guys to let me in? I don't even need you over here – just tell them over the radio."
"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down. What's this new hardware you need to test so badly?" Jake frowned irritably at the exasperated sigh which crackled in through the earpiece.
"It's a drone. A sensor drone more accurately. It turns out nobody here has taken the time to do any cartography, so most of this planet is unexplored. I've outfitted this thing with top-of-the line equipment for scanning and mapping the entire globe, all I need is the colony's hyper-range communications dish – it's the only thing with enough radius to cover the entire planet."
"Hey uh, is this thing able to pick up lifeforms?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I'll sanction your little expedition, on one condition. You scan the forest first."
"'Vee still avoiding you, huh?" Tyler asked. Jake could feel the shit-eating grin the young man was wearing through the handset. He just loved to see Jake miserable.
"Yes. Do we have a deal?" Jake grated out, barely holding back from berating his pseudo-friend.
"Sure. You help me take a major step in advancing this Resistance stronghold, and I'll help you stalk your girlfriend. Just don't tell her I helped you."
"I'll be there in five."
~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~
"Got another blip on the… nope, doesn't match a Xeno's signature. Hm… Oh! Another – wait, that's a snake. Interesting little buggers, those ones. Special venom puts certain species of animals into heats so it can eat their young… anyway, what were we doing again? Right. Xeno signatures… nope, not a one. Mapping next sector…"
"Can you hurry this up?" Jake groaned into his radio, swatting away a draping leaf as he ducked through the undergrowth which choked the deep woods.
"Hey, if you think any of your buzz-cut twats can do any better, be my guest, but this is a complicated procedure. Not to mention our target is intelligent, and if she figures out what's up, she could easily dodge us by jumping back into sectors we've already checked," Tyler retorted from his cosy seat in the control tower.
"I thought the system was automated," Jake snapped irritably. "Can't you just leave it to do its thing?"
"No, the mapping systems are automated. It'd take me at least a day to program a search-and-retrieve routine into this thing, which is time I really can't be bothered wasting, and you probably don't want to spend waiting, so for the time being I have to resort to manual control." Jake almost face-planted as his foot sank suddenly into a patch of thick, muddy water. He cursed and yanked his leg out, stumbling into a tree, which he punched out of frustration, before composing himself. "Look, there's a new lifeform on the scanner – the idiotus maximus, better known as Jake," Tyler quipped.
"Fuck off."
"I would love to, but I keep my promises, so I'm stuck here until you find your girlfriend." Jake listened to the faint buzz of Tyler's drone fade as it whizzed off ahead and gritted his teeth. "Uh… hang on a minute, I've got another lifeform on the scanner –"
"Is it 'Vena?"
"Well, no, but –"
"Then I don't wanna know."
"This is kinda –"
"No, seriously. Can you just shut up until we find her? I'm getting real sick of your shit."
"Fine, enjoy having your face eaten, fucktard." Jake paused, frowning slightly. The anger that had been building within him all day was battling desperately with his common sense as to whether or not he should give in and follow that up. A quiet crinkling of crisp leaves caught his attention, and he whirled in the direction of the disturbance, barely catching a glimpse of a pair of glowing emerald orbs. He immediately grabbed his sidearm and slipped it out of its holster. As he thumbed the safety, the bushes suddenly exploded, sending leaves flying everywhere as a large, vaguely feline, shaggy brown creature leapt at him.
They collided, sending Jake straight to the ground with the heavy creature atop him while his gun flopped onto the muddy ground somewhere nearby. Jake instinctively grabbed the creature's face either side of its deadly maw, wrestling with the bulky animal to keep the razor sharp teeth away from his throat. He wrenched his body aside, throwing the heavy mass off himself when the feline raised a paw to swipe at him, allowing him to roll to his feet and scramble away, torn between scrabbling in the dirt for his gun or putting some kind of distance between them.
Jake soon realised searching would be useless; only careful scrutiny would allow him to pick out his sleek, grey pistol from its resting place within the mud, dirt and dead leaves. Instead, he grabbed for the nearest low-hanging tree branch and hauled himself up. He was cut short by a winding blow to his back, forcing him to the ground with enough force to snap the branch he was holding. Jake grunted and rolled onto his back, swinging the branch with as much force as he could muster, grunting as the hard wood connected with the creature's head, jarring his arm. It squealed and leapt back, giving Jake room to stumble back onto his feet, pointing his stick at it threateningly. It circled, slowly, predatorily, and Jake matched its movements, keeping the branch between them at all times. He tripped over a root, almost sending him back into the mud, but he managed to catch himself just in time.
The creature saw its opening however, and pounced yet again, claws bared and teeth glinting in what light could pierce the thick canopy of the forest. Jake adjusted his stance, shoving the thick branch into its jaws and gripping it with both hands, pushing the feline away and holding it at arm's length. It dug all four of its legs into the ground, pushing with all its might as Jake did the same in a sick life-or-death game of reverse tug-of-war. Jake felt his muscles trembling in protest as he was obviously no match for the predator, and his feet were digging grooves into the mud as he was slowly backed up into a tree.
Suddenly, there was a startling crunch and Jake felt his arms get tugged upwards as the stick bent sharply, the fulcrum of course being within the creature's jaws. Its ears flickered uncertainly for a moment, but it resumed pushing. Jake's back bumped into the tree behind him, giving him no more room to be pushed, which meant only the strength in his arms and the stick stood between him and the creature now. The creature's ears swivelled again, and this time Jake was given pause as well. A faint thrumming drifted through the trees. Tyler's drone? Maybe, but it sounded different. Regardless, the feline pressed on, and the stick was gradually being pushed closer and closer to Jake's chest, almost within lunge range now.
The feline jerked away, staring off into the distance apprehensively. Jake was aware of the fact now that the humming was louder. The trees began swaying as an all-too-strong breeze rushed through their leaves, and Jake prematurely began celebrating his victory when the feline looked ready to bolt. But the fear of the noise spurred it on to get its business finished faster. It gave its final leap at Jake, wanting to finish this here and now so it could drag its meal off somewhere quieter, safer. Jake attempted to smack it aside, snapping the branch in the process. The creature was undeterred, and sunk its teeth into his left shoulder, narrowly avoiding his throat. Then the light which filtered through the leaves disappeared, and a soft thump sent a flurry of leaves spinning into the air. Tyler stood quickly from where he'd landed and whipped his pistol up, firing off three rounds into the beast. He was obviously aiming for centre mass for easier hits, as he hit shoulder-shoulder-chest, which unfortunately only served to piss the creature off.
The feline hissed in pain and with a snarl, leapt at Tyler, no longer looking for food but at a threat to its survival. Then it screeched in pain as a black blur fell square on the back of its neck like a dead weight, flattening it into the ground, before racking its shotgun and firing a buckshot into its skull. Sal turned slowly to give Jake a once over as he slung his shotgun over his shoulder.
"Medpack, Sal," Tyler commanded, pointing upwards. Sal nodded, and let his shotgun hang by its strap while he clambered up the trunk of a tree to reach the hovering vehicle which they had arrived on; the source of the steady, pulsating humming. A red box fell from the sky moments later, landing precisely in Tyler's open hands. He set the bright container on the ground and flipped its red-cross-adorned lid open, grabbing several items from within.
There was a sting in Jake's leg, then the searing pain in his shoulder dulled and everything went out of focus. He wasn't aware of Tyler as he ripped off the ex-marine's blood-soaked shirt and began cleaning his wound. What he could feel, was a slight tug on his mind, an intense rush of worry, and muffled, hurried footsteps coming towards him, yet strangely fading from his hearing…
Jake passed out, and Tyler briefly wondered if he'd used too much painkiller. Behind him, two Xenomorphs burst through the shrubbery, grinding to a halt beside him.
"We heard gunfire –" Mozart began, but was immediately cut off by a worried shriek.
"What the hell happened?" Advena demanded, nearly shoving Tyler over in her desperation to get closer to her lover.
"Oh, the usual. I do my best to keep everyone safe, nobody fucking listens to me, people get hurt. Oh, and by the way, when he wakes up, tell him I expect him to bail me out of one count of assault, and one count of vehicular theft. I've patched him up best I can, but you should get him to a real doctor pretty damn soon; there's only so much I can do." Advena nodded desperately. "Also, I hope there's no hard feelings, but I had to help him find you in order to get permission to do vital reconnaissance which will help this entire colony."
"Tyler. Doctor."
"Right, right. Sal, help me into the ship will you?"
~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~
Jake groaned and hauled himself upright, immediately regretting it as pain raced up his spine, bringing tears to his eyes at the sudden rush of excruciating pain coming from his shoulder. Advena jerked upright before him, quickly swinging her domed head to face him. As Jake panted off the stress, his eyes slowly roamed the room. He was in an infirmary; he could tell by the pristine white, the rows of narrow, metal framed beds – one of which he lay in – and the equipment stored on small trolleys haphazardly strewn about the room.
Advena uncoiled herself from a small, cushioned chair and crept over to him, anger still bubbling just below the surface, but relief and worry dominating the majority of her mind.
"Are you okay?" she asked tentatively. Jake nodded unsteadily, running a hand through his hair experimentally. He was in desperate need of a shower, but other than that, he could be far, far worse.
"Yeah, I think I'm alright," he croaked with a weak smile.
"Then what the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed! If Tyler hadn't been there – gah! You're so stupid sometimes!"
"I needed to talk to you, to smooth things over, 'Vena. Things didn't really go too well last night…"
"We had a fight, Jacob. A fight that's not over yet, and a fight which requires some alone time to cool off. Hence why I went to the forest, where no sane human being with a shred of intelligence would run into, blind of the dangers, alone."
"I know, I know," Jake groaned, placing is face in his palm. "I'm not usually this clingy, I promise. But god damn does this whole Bond thing fuck with my head. It feels very wrong to be out of telepathic range, to not feel your presence in my mind twenty-four-seven as I have been for the past few months."
"Hm, that sounds somewhat like a withdrawal symptom. Some lesser species do tend to get addicted to telepathy; looks like humans might be one of them."
"Lesser species? Come on 'Vena."
"I'm still pissed at you," she reminded him, "in fact, probably more now than ever. If you plan on trying to kill yourself every time we have a fight, I think I might have to seek a lower-maintenance partner."
"Okay, okay. Look, you're right. Let's just… 'cool off', and talk once we've all calmed down. I'll probably be sleeping here for the next couple of days anyway."
"Oh, yeah, now he gets it," Advena mumbled more to herself than to her partner. She dropped onto the floor, and with a steady tip-tap of her claws, paced out of the room, leaving Jake alone with his thoughts. He supposed it was better to get all this 'withdrawal' crap out of the way now, in a relatively safe environment. He couldn't imagine how badly a disconnection could screw up a field operation if he didn't train himself to deal with it.
Either way, he had a few days to get started on it.
