D E R E L I C T I O N

by GIGERMENSCH

After a horrifying encounter with a treacherous monstrosity, only one engineer managed to survived the insidious game of cat and mouse. In order to live, she must escape the dismal ship before it can hunt her down. Will she make it or will she perish? This is a short story based off the Alien franchise. Note: this is only to enrich the alien franchise, not to replace the narrative.

WEYLAND YUTANI CORPORATION LOG WY3TZ4578910B-ZF23749174Q

DATE: SEPTEMBER 15th, 2034

VESSEL NAME: USCSS ODYSSEUS

VESSEL SERIAL NUMBER: M290384730H

VESSEL TYPE: D-CLASS LOCKMART DM 52C "BEAR" CARGO FREIGHTER

NUMBER OF PERSONNEL: 25

WEIGHT: 43,000 METRIC TONNES

STATUS/WHEREABOUTS OF VESSEL: UNKNOWN

THE USCSS ODYSSEUS HAS RECENTLY TRAVELED TO THE ZETA RETICULI SYSTEM, WHERE IT HAS ENCOUNTERED AN "UNKNOWN SPECIMEN" FROM A MOON AND SAID SPECIMEN WAS BROUGHT BACK TO THE VESSEL DUE TO WEYLAND-YUTANI GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS. AS OF YET, THE FATE OF THE CREW HAS BEEN INCONCLUSIVE.

SUMMARY: Nearly twenty five hours ago, The Odysseus had received an arcane and mysterious signal from a moon known as LV-426, where a small exploration craft was sent from space in order to investigate the source. When the signal has been identified as a warning siren, one of the members of the exploration sight was infected by a mysterious scorpion-like creature as it latched onto his face, its function unknown to the crew that were bewildered by it. Controversy broke out as the crew debated amongst themselves on whether they should bring the creature into the ship or not. Despite quarantine protocols prohibiting unknown life forms from entering any vessel, the crew decided to let it in so they could save one life. In approximately twenty four hours, the creature on his face has succumbed to its life expectancy, but it wasn't the last time the crew would be bedeviled with this alien curse. As the crew member seemingly recovered extremely well, he felt a strong and burning pain in his chest, where the crew thought he was suffering from post traumatic shock disorder. Even though the crew did everything they could to save him, something vile erupted from his chest and escaped into the vents of the ship. The crew tried to capture it, but it was too late. Moments thereafter, it grew into an ominous monster that only knew hunger and sadism as it began to stalk the crew. One by one, each crew member was picked off by the creature with little to no resistance. The majority of them were either killed or were cocooned in order to produce more ovomorphs, more offspring that will continue its treasonable legacy. Subsequently, only one crew member managed to survive the treacherous game of cat and mouse. The name of the survivor is Dinah Johnson, an engineer sent by Weyland Yutani aboard The Artemis Mission, an assignment designed to terraform extraterrestrial worlds.

In the escape shuttle quarters, Dinah was hastily trying to activate the escape shuttle, but to no avail as it required an energy source to power the thrusters. The Engineer was thinking about a section that carries that energy source in abundance. In about twenty seconds, she realized that the warehouse on the other side of the ship was her best bet, but she would be risking her life tremendously because she doesn't know where the creature is lurking or at least, doesn't know where it is in the moment. The decision was giving Dinah a major frustration as both answers will result in death if either the creature kills her or she dies from starvation. After thinking about it for about one minute, she decided that finding the warehouse was her better option.

With determination by her side, Dinah, with a medical kit in her hand, got out of the room she was in. She brought a wrench, a pickaxe, and a small flamethrower in order to defend herself from whatever hazard could be present on the vessel. Without hesitation, she left the room and walked as slowly as possible so she wouldn't alert anyone or anything to her presence. In the desolate and overly mechanical jungle of the engine room, Dinah looked around, trying to see any exit that will lead her to the warehouse. While she was searching around her environment, a wisp of vehemently hot steam struck her on her right shoulder, giving her a severe burn that covered one-third of the skin of her upper arm. She let out a loud scream of pain as she aimlessly went to her medical kit and got out a can full of medical grade foam. She instantaneously sprayed it on her shoulder, causing the level of pain to accumulate even more. It almost took Dinah forty seconds to heal her wound as she placed the can back inside her medical kit.

When she was about to keep on going, The Engineer suddenly heard something shifting above her, something that sounded organic and broad. Dinah immediately stopped in her tracks and waited for whatever was in the vents to pass her, but it didn't. Instead, Dinah realized that it got down to the level she was on, in the same room that she was in as she could hear footsteps touching the metal floor. Whatever it was, it was extremely close as Dinah could hear growling coming from less than ten feet way. It was sniffing around, trying to find something to either kill or eat. The engineer slowly backed away from the area and she walked languidly towards the exit, hoping that it doesn't detect her. With every step she takes, it seems that the creature is closing in on her as she hears that its footsteps are following her as well. She had managed to finally end her daunting predicament when she reached the exit, but when she was about to step on the other side of the room, her wrench fell from her pocket, causing it to clash with the floor below it as it made a loud noise.

Dinah's eyes widened with fear as she now hears a loud screech that sent shivers down her spine, but it was no ordinary screech. The screech itself sounded extremely human-like to the point it sounded like a mix between distorted version of a child screaming and a deep hiss from a snake. Its footsteps eventually became faster in speed as the creature began to discover where the sound came from. Without hesitation, Dinah left the engine room, where she would try to lock the heavy metal door. As she was trying to lock the door, she immediately grasped that she needed a key card in order to shut it tight. As a result, she had to drop her bag and find the card in a haste, where it made a loud booming noise. Her heart rate began to increase as sweat dripped from her forehead from the fear she was generating. While she was looking for it, she could hear the footsteps coming even closer. Roughly seven seconds later, she looked at her right and she almost jumped in shock as she now sees the silhouette of the creature nearly forty feet away from her. She then placed her attention to the bag, remembering that she needed to get her key card. As she managed to get the key card out, the creature eventually sees her and with the same screech from earlier, it commenced to charge towards her with incredible speed and stamina. Dinah looked on in fear as she ran towards the control panel of the door and swiped down as hard as she could, causing the heavy door to lower itself. As the creature was about to close in on her, the door closed completely, trapping it in the engine room. Now seeing that her predicament was solved, Dinah let out a sigh of relief as she heard the creature screaming and scratching the metal behind the door. After she finished looking at the door, the door that held her fate, Dinah looked down and picked up her wrench. With everything complete, she then left as she intends to continue her trip.

The Engineer pushed on through her trek as she kept going through numerous sections of The Odysseus, trying to get closer to the warehouse. After nearly four minutes of wandering without direction, Dinah finally found the warehouse, which was mysteriously opened from the outside and by force. Filling herself with suspicion, she saw that the control panel was brutally damaged by a crowbar laying below it by its side to the floor. She entered with slow precision as she got out her pickaxe, preparing herself for whatever was lurking inside the warehouse. As she entered, she turned on the light and looked at her surroundings. When she looked to the left, she saw a tall black beast standing by her. It was a xenomorph that was slightly more than eight feet tall, had silver nails and toenails, and a biomechanical appearance, but the most disturbing aspect of it was the top of its head: The top has an elongated human like skull underneath the dome, where its eyeless sockets stared at her without emotion or remorse, but of savage ferocity. She instantly screamed at the top of her lungs as she plunged her pickaxe into the neck of it, spilling some of its acid blood, causing the metal grating to be dissolved by it. The blade of pickaxe itself disintegrated as the whole tool fell to the floor, clattering seldomly for a moment until it stopped vibrating completely. Dinah backed away from it as she took heavy and deep breaths, clenching her chest in agony. After the ordeal was over, the engineer began to comprehend that the creature she stabbed was already dead before she even entered the room. There was a massive cauterized wound on the head, implying that it was killed by a plasma saw. Also, there were two stab wounds in the chest probably caused by the same tool. Since the danger has subsided, Dinah looked at her left and saw someone lying on the floor on his front, with an acid burn wound that consumed the majority of his left hand. She shortly found out that he killed it, but it was probably a dissension that would never truly resolute.

The Engineer directly dropped down to her knees and checked his vital signs to see if he was still alive. In order to determine his pulse in his neck, The Engineer turned him over and once he was facing to the front, she gasped in shock and horror as she saw that his head was crushed and had the majority of his forehead bitten off by force, which caused her to question something. The wound on his head had indents that imply that human teeth were biting him and the creature that he killed would never kill its prey in that manner. After a while, she began to apprehend the situation: there was a second creature unboard The Odysseus. Now shocked with the revelation, Dinah tried to get the energy source that she was looking for, but The Engineer expeditiously halted in her tracks when she heard organic footsteps entering the room and in a quick reflex, she turned around only for her to widen her eyes as she stumbled backwards towards a shelf, where she knocked some things over, shattering when they hit the floor. It was yet another creature, but this time, its appearance was dramatically different from the xenomorph. The creature itself was ivory white in color, had human-like teeth grotesquely growing from its red gingiva, four long spikes behind its back, and a human-like ossein skull that can be vaguely seen from the excessive mass of cartilage-like tissue, where it was looking at the engineer with hunger and inclination. It was a Beluga Xenomorph, the exact same one she saw in the engine room. Next, It proceeded to corner her, raising its bony and desolate hands in the air in order to mutilate her as its imposing stature covered the lights in the backgrounds with its pretentious shadow. Before it could drive her into a corner of the warehouse, she got out her wrench in anon and brutally smashed it against The Beluga Xenomorph's bulbous forehead, which caused it to screech in both in anger and pain. Soon after, she quickly got out her miniature flamethrower and sprayed the grotesque monster with flames, dousing it to the point that the creature became distracted by the smoke that was developed by the fire. Now able to embrace her opportunity, Dinah grabbed the energy source from the shelf and all at once, hastily ran away from the room as she can hear the monster screeching, desperately trying to find the engineer. She kept on running, making sure to lock all of the doors every time she passes each room or section along the way.

Hereafter, The Beluga Xenomorph came out of the warehouse, apparently unscathed as there were no injuries present on its frame. The creature looked up as it retreated back into a vent above it, trying to continue its hunt. Subsequently, Dinah managed to get back to the escape shuttle quarters as she promptly pushed all of the buttons of the control panel in order to write down the activation code. After the door to the shuttle has opened, she urgently went to the room where the self destruct mechanism was held. Once she got there, she pressed a series of buttons, allowing her to gain access to the four cylinders. At that point, she slid each slit and pressed each button, then placed the slits back to their original positions while making sure that the cylinders go back in place properly. Shortly after, smoke began to fill The Odysseus as numerous warning lights went on and off with a very loud siren eerily echoing throughout the halls.

"WARNING: SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED. ALL PERSONNEL HAVE APPROXIMATELY TEN MINUTES BEFORE THE VESSEL IS DESTROYED BY NUCLEAR FUSION. IN CASE THE MECHANISM WAS ACTIVATED BY ACCIDENT, THE PERSONNEL HAS FIVE MINUTES TO DISENGAGE THE SEQUENCE. ALL REMAINING PERSONNEL MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. "

Content that the creature will be blasted away by the explosion, Dinah ran as fast as she could as she went back to the escape shuttle quarters. Not want to stick around, The Engineer fled through the door, closing it in order to pressurize the cabin. She later progressed into the spacious environment of the cabin as she prepped the hypersleep chamber and prepared the engines for take off.

"WARNING: THE DEADLINE TO DISENGAGE THE SEQUENCE HAS NOW EXPIRED. ALL PERSONNEL HAS FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE VESSEL IS DESTROYED BY NUCLEAR FUSION."

The warning hauntingly reminded The Engineer that she needed to abandon The Odysseus before she would devoured by radioactive heat . Getting into the chair with haste, she made a few calculations on the keyboard and in less than a minute, the shuttle departed from the godforsaken vessel. As the shuttle has now left the launching railway of the ship, Dinah used one of the windows on the left side of the cabin in order to see the ship collapse upon itself, ensuring that whatever monstrosity left aboard was obliterated into a mass of radioactive energy. As the countdown resonated throughout the compartment, the voice of the AI ultimately stopped counting as the meltdown that was about to consume The Odysseus has begun.

"THERE ARE NOW TEN SECONDS BEFORE THE VESSEL WILL BE DECIMATED. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 ,1, 0."

In a short moment, but powerful moment, the whole ship detonated into a massive nuclear explosion, causing a devastating shockwave to form and briefly shake the shuttle in a violent manner which was then followed by a blinding white light that caused Dinah to shield her eyes with one of her arms. Sooner or later, the explosion subsided as it grew small, gradually fading away from the blackness of the void of space. Elated that the explosion didn't leave any trace of The Odysseus behind, she was relieved that her nightmarish ordeal was over. Dinah calmly walked back towards the flight control section, where she would try to find the nearest space station, hoping it would pick up her transmission and at last, send a rescue party to find her and get her to safety.

"Calling any space station within proximity. Can anyone hear me? This is Dinah Johnson, the only survivor of The Artemis Mission. I'm requesting immediate contact with any personnel on board."

In a short moment, the white noise and static turned into an actual reply as she heard a voice coming out of the speaker.

"This is Issac Anastos, chief communications officer of The Constanta Space Station. What is your current status?"

"I'm in an escape shuttle as the vessel I was on was destroyed by a nuclear meltdown. Right now, I don't know how long I can maintain the hypersleep chamber before shuts down."

She lied in order not to raise any alarms or at the very least, let Weyland Yutani find out about the ordeal.

"Okay Dinah, then hold on. I'm going to send a search party out to get you. What's your location?"

"I'm at the Zeta Reticuli System, point 33…"

Before Dinah could finish, she suddenly heard something large and metallic falling to the floor from behind the second door as a blaring siren started to commence. Although she was both confused and terrified, Dinah thought it was a mechanical error, so she decided to investigate and probably repair it to its condition.

"What wrong? Is there someone else there with you?"

"No, but there's a mechanical malfunction in the shuttle. Just give me a few seconds to fix it."

"Okay, but don't take too long. We don't know how long the shuttle can sustain you for."

"Don't worry. I'll be finished as soon as possible."

After Dinah reassured Isaac, she turned off the radio so she could focus on the problem at hand, trying to anticipate the damage that was probably caused by the launch. As she was about to get some tools out, a verbal warning from the AI shook her bones as she began to get paranoid and sweat profusely.

"WARNING, UNIDENTIFIED ORGANISM HAS BREACHED THE CABIN. MAKE SURE TO REPRESSURISE SPACE IN CASE DAMAGE HAS LEFT NOTICEABLE TEARS OR VOIDS IN THE HULL."

Before she could discern what was going on, she suddenly saw an ivory white mass coming out of the very narrow gap of the door as if it was made out of a semi-viscous liquid. Not long after, the mass grew teeth as they were protruding from its surrealistic oral fissure. She dropped her tools in disbelief an fear as she began to envision what it was: It was the Beluga Xenomorph from the warehouse. She slowly backed away from it and went closer to the flight control panel, trying to reach the button that ejects everything into the empty vastness of space. When she managed to finally reach that button, she pressed it with immense speed, but nothing happened. She then quickly looked at the button with worry, desperation, and concern as she kept slamming her fist on it with frequency, hoping that the doors would try to open, but they never did as the mechanisms that were responsible for moving the doors were dislodged when The Beluga Xenomorph pushed itself through, forcing the doors to slightly make way for its boneless mass.

"Oh fuck!" She yelled as she kept slamming the button.

The creature kept growling at her as as it was trying to get in. Inevitably, The Creature got through the door, where its towering frame had commenced to impede Dinah from escaping its vile grip. As Dinah now is seeing the creature face to face, it gave her a facial expression that was unnatural and otherworldly to the point it sent shivers down her body: It was grinning menacingly at her with its unnatural teeth and mouth , despite The Creature being a primitive lifeform that only knew how to stalk and kill its prey. Knowing that she was out of useful options, she tried to make a run towards a heavy duty metal locker as it could at least protect her from The Creature. Even though she ran as fast as she can, and was trying to exceed her limits, it was all in vain as The Beluga Xenomorph suddenly caught up with The Engineer and clutched her by the leg. The creature vigorously dragged the engineer towards its towering extent as Dinah's eyes were beginning to fill up with dismay and dread while she fiercely clawed against the floor and tried to grip onto something, attempting to get out of its constraint, but nothing helped her out because she felt its large bony hands had begun to crush her head like a walnut and postliminary, her blood and bodily fluids were starting to profusely leak from her massive wounds. The Engineer was crying with screams of fear and pain as she was being mutilated and torn to death by an unnatural being. Consequently, the mouth of The Creature opens, revealing its monstrous and eerily human-like internal oral anatomy. Dinah was helpless as the only thing that she could do was accept her fate and hope it would end soon. In less than six seconds, its mouth extended itself like a goblin shark, where it took a huge bite out of her forehead.

The gaping wound bled copiously while some brain matter fell out. The corpse then dropped down to the floor, releasing some more brain matter once the creature discarded her head. Now covered in her blood, The Beluga Xenomorph went towards the radio of the flight control panel and turned it back on by slamming it onto the hard metal floor. Not long after, Isaac was speaking in the radio, worried about Dinah's whereabouts.

"Dinah, what happened?! Are you alright?!"

Isaac heard that the radio was slammed to the ground, so he assumed that there was something amiss. Getting closer to the radio, the creature began to open its mouth and it spoke, but it wasn't a screech or growl, it was Dinah's voice.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I had to fix a leakage outside the vessel since the cabin was losing pressure, so it took me longer that i thought it would take."

"So nothing is amiss in the cabin with you?"

"Like I said, I'm perfectly fine."

"Then tell me your location so I can get a group to find you."

"Certainly. I'm by the Zeta Reticuli System, Point 33, 108, 230, and 46. There's a huge sun surrounding three small moons."

"Okay. Hang tight. The search party should reach you as soon as possible. Just go into the hypersleep chamber so time can pass."

"I will. Thank you for everything."

Before Isaac could reply again, the transmission was terminated due to the signal being too far away from the space station. After all this time, a bizarre and uncanny grin formed from its grotesque and bloody mouth when The Beluga Xenomorph understood that more potential victims were coming to the shuttle, where it would devour them all. In order to wait for them during the long time it take for them to find the shuttle, The Creature begun to hibernate by sitting down and enveloping itself by the flight control panel, greatly reducing its metabolism and keeping its basic biological functions maintained like a tardigrade. It was now asleep, isolated from the universe in the mechanical jungle that was the cabin of the shuttle.

At the same time, the shuttle that is now ironically housing Dinah's corpse like a metal coffin is continuously wandering in the drift of space, waiting to get ascertained in the future.

AUDIO LOG, RECORDED TWENTY FIVE MINUTES BEFORE DECIMATION OF THE ODYSSEUS

"This is Dinah Johnson, the last surviving member of The Odysseus. Due to a leakage in a reactor core, the engines had turned into a nuclear meltdown from what I can say, a lack of coolant or something like that. I will be escaping from the ship immediately in order to make it out alive. In case if this tape has been found, I wanna say that I'm grateful for the life that my husband and my son gave me. I miss the both of you and I hope that I get the chance to be with you guys again. Matthew, if you get the chance to hear this, remember to follow what your dad tells you to do and I won't take that long to get home. I love you."

THE END