They say frontier work is dirty work.
"Where no Man has gone before" is a heroic phrase, it practically oozes adventure and pioneer spirit.
But after the ships and crews who have discovered this barren rock leave, the colonists and the miners come.
It's a frontier, no more and no less. A new world, with new rules.
In most cases this means the person who is stronger or has less scruples gets rich, and those who held onto the hope of creating a new "civilisation" or a "society" usually end up either dead or penniless, toiling away in the mines, for those who were successful.
And only violence would change this. And for those without a weapon, Amos speaks.
Amos appeared here and there. They say he was from earth, an escaped prisoner. It was rumoured that he was an android, but other rumours stated he was a Ninja, a member of an ancient Japanese cult.
But whatever one chose to believe who or what Amos was, he was certainly not cheap. He was very through, though. Almost uncontested in the area of killers for hire in this area of space, he could and would kill anything for money, and he did.
Governors, Company men, military personnel, rich and poor, Amos did not make any difference. Before him, they all were equal.
Equally dead.
Frontier work is dirty work.
On the 25th of June, Amos was found dead, floating in his ship, orbiting LX-239 by the crew of a freighter, the "Andrea Doria"
The vessel was duly towed back to LX-239's spaceport, and Amos' body examined thoroughly.
His ribcage had been mauled and ripped open, almost like a ritualistic killing. Parts of his internal organs had been removed, but weren't found on the ship.
It was perceived that someone had found Amos' ship, and had taken revenge for a blood feud.
The case was closed.
On the 4th of September, the "Andrea Doria" was found, hanging in dead space, a distress beacon switched on.
The salvage crew entering the ship found the crew slaughtered in their cryotubes, mauled, ripped, disfigured horribly.
The freighter, belonging to Weyland-Yutani, was duly towed back to the largest Weyland-Yutani outpost in that sector, Sigma-44.
The AI had not recorded anything on the assault. In fact, it just wasn't there anymore. The AI, a basic part of the Ships infrastructure, had suffered a complete system failure.
It was perceived that space pirates had assaulted the freighter in dead space, killing the occupants as they discovered nothing valuable within it.
The bodies were buried, the ship repaired, renamed and the case was closed.
On the 12th of November, a small yautjan vessel picked up the distress beacon of an earthen spacecraft.
Given the fact that a treaty was agreed between Yautja and humans, the vessel's captain changed course, duly to come to the aid of the medium-sized salvage ship, which was resting in space close to an unknown system.
The yautja made investigations, but found all crew dead, killed horribly.
Space pirates, this time of yautjan origin were blamed again, those who were honourless, and robbed and killed unarmed men in their sleep. The Yautja closed the case and they resumed their journey.
This deviation from their course forced them to refuel at the closest human settlement.
The captain plotted a course to LX-239.
In the belly of the vessel, Aki'ru, referred to by his comrades only as Aki, wondered through the holding compartments.
They brought back living prize this time.
These creatures were called "Xenomorphs" by the humans, and the Yautja chose to use that name as well. For them, they were only prey, prey one must hunt to receive the highest honours.
Aki had already killed one, his mask was decorated with the spoils of his hunt, yet he had set it down whilst he was walking along the holding compartments, looking at the creatures.
One was a praetorian, large, and with a small chitinous crown. Three others were warriors, their ridged skulls glinting in the light.
One was a drone.
The other four were relentlessly trying to break out of their cages, slamming their bodies against it. But the glass would not break. It would never break.
Aki had sat down in front of the cages, removing dirt from under his claws with his blade.
The drone was sitting on its haunches, resting against the glass wall. The elongated head followed every movement he made.
It was different to the others. Like it was waiting for something. Its lips were closed, and a small bead of saliva was dripping from them. Aki didn't know if these things had eyes, but if they had, the drone was looking at him.
The Yautja stared back.
These journeys home were always so long and boring, but now he had found something interesting. Something to occupy himself with.
The drone wrapped its tail around itself, and, raising the tip, it scratched its back with it.
Daydreaming, the Yautja fiddled with his dreadlocks.
The drone raised an arm, and imitated his movement, fiddling with non-existent dreadlocks.
That surprised Aki, and he stopped moving, staying very still.
So did the drone.
He leaned his head to the right side.
The drone imitated his movement.
It couldn't… What was it doing? And why was it imitating him?
"What are you doing?" he clicked at the creature, unsure with himself why he was talking to an animal. Yet they also talked to their dogs. If he could turn this into a dog….
The xenomorph's head dropped to one side again.
Of course it didn't understand. It was an animal. The dogs didn't understand anything either.
The drone's mouth opened, and it made a gurgling noise.
It dripped a bit of saliva and then, it opened its inner maw, and made a soft noise. It clicked.
Softly, the alien creature clicked back at the Yautja.
This was impossible.
It was their language.
And right in that moment, the lights went out, and the throb of the ship's engine stopped.
Aki got up, feeling for a control panel on the wall. His scouting fingers found it, and he attempted to reactivate the ships light, to no avail.
Aki wasn't scared of the dark, of course not, but he was getting uncomfortable as the silence streched from seconds into minutes. Why wasn't the emergency lighting system active?
He had to find his mask.
Suddenly, there was a loud hiss, and with a uniform clang, the doors of the holding pens opened.
Aki heard the hisses of the xenomorphs, and his heart sank. If the holding pens were open, he would die. But he would do so honourably.
He couldn't put on his mask, he was blind in the darkness, but still, he lowered his stance, ready to fight.
But it didn't come to that. It never came to a fight.
He felt strong, hard arms around his back, and something slammed into him like a sledgehammer. Crashing against the wall and sliding to the ground, he pushed against his attacker, trying to get it off of him. He knew that soon, the alien's inner maw would impale his head, and he would be dead.
He sliced the air with his blades, trying to get some purchase, but in vain.
Suddenly, he heard something click into his ear. It was barely audible, and with a horrible accent, but it was understandable.
"Stop. Help."
Something grabbed his hand, and he felt his wrist blade punch into flesh.
Acid burned his skin, and the creature lying on top of him screeched loudly, he roared in pain, but suddenly felt something enter his mouth, blocking his throat and smothering his scream.
The creature on top of him went limp.
He couldn't bite down on the alien maw, as the blood would kill him.
But maybe this was a way.
He too, started to go dead.