Here are some additional reasons as to why I wrote this story, that I forgot to mention.
1. Xenomorphs are badasses. Bite me if you disagree.
2. Alien Resurrection wasn't a suitable sequel to Alien 3, and thus isn't considered canon- not by me, anyway.
3. I'm bored with my life.
By the way, this story is set about 3 years after the events of Alien 3 on Fiorina 161. Also, I forgot to mention a few things in last chapters ending note.
"Hived": to be restrained in Hive Resin and to have a Chestburster embryo inside you.
"Internicivus raptus": Latin name for Xenomorphs, means "murderous/deadly thief/rapist".
"Xenomorph": Latin phrase made up of terms "Xeno"; meaning "strange", or "unknown". And "morph"; meaning "shape", or "form". It's basically a fancier way of saying "alien", or "unknown creature".
Just to be clear, the Ancestral influences on the Xenomorph Drone in the last chapter, are really just extremely powerful instincts. Like how most humans have the urge to avoid heights. Except for Xenomorphs, it is much more difficult to resist these urges. Mostly due to the fact that Xenomorphs get pumped up with utterly absurd amounts of adrenaline from their highly advanced adrenal gland. Causing them to go into a drug/instinct induced rage every time someone so much as mentions the word "prey" or "Host". Figuratively speaking, of course- Xenomorphs don't speak English. Not most of them.
Chapter 1: Fate and Cynicism
When one is running for their life from the threat of a painful death, they might easily forget a few things. What someone said to them the previous morning. The location of a particular object that might have come in handy. Their mental map of the nearby area. They won't really care, or think, about what direction they're going in. So long as it's "away from the threat", it's good. Especially when that person has about five Xenomorphs on their tail… Warriors, no less.
Samantha Bodisson skidded around a sharp corner, her arm straining painfully as she used her hand to grab the wall's edge and swing herself around the turn. This was the first turn she'd taken, and she'd only taken it once she was certain that her pursuers were far enough behind her for it to be safe. After all... turns slow you down. And "slow" wasn't something you could afford to be. Not when an angry pack of Xenomorphs is literally on your heels, or close to it.
As she sprinted down the blue/gray corridor, doors and silver room numbers flying by, she occupied her thoughts by mentally berating herself for being careless. In order to avoid panicking, ostensibly, though you wouldn't catch her dead admitting it. Yeah, great job Sam. You've really done it this time haven't you? How could you forget to seal the damn airlock!? You stupid, stupid woman! For fuck's sake!-, were just some of the things that she seriously considered yelling aloud, in order to give her brain something moderately less distressing to focus on.
You see, for the past 3 months, she had been hiding in the airlock of a large marine tank. On account of the fact that the electric energy of the doors and tunnel blocked out Xenomorph Electroreception. It had been working fairly well- the Alien's' echolocation couldn't go through the air-tight doors, and the heavy smell of chlorine blocked out Samantha's scent. She could pop in and out multiple times, root around for food, and they'd never catch her.
Until- not even joking here, as much she'd loved to have been in a laughing mood… she fucking forgot… She forgot to seal the airlock door, and thus, allowed herself to get caught. How the Hell does a person just "forget" to ensure their own safety?! She shouldn't have stayed up so late trying to draw- her morning grogginess cost her her livelihood! She guessed this just proved how much just one mistake can completely decimate your chances in a place like this.
Her only warning of attack was a faint *whoosh* sound, and it was all she needed to hop, mid-bound, to avoid taking a 2-foot blade of black exoskeleton through the shin. The metal sparked and left a deep gash in the floor, behind her, though she wouldn't know, it as she didn't even look back- just kept running. Five Xenomorph Warriors close behind. It was a good thing that Warriors couldn't outpace an award winning track-runner, like herself. Otherwise, Samantha would have long ago been bestowed a gaping hole in her forehead at the receiving end of a Xenomorph's pharyngeal jaws.
The Xenomorphs behind her snarled impossibly loudly, in extremely evident frustration, as they continued pursuing her on all-fours. One of them was crawling along the ceiling, another was on the wall to her left, and the other three were on the ground… last time she checked, that is. This meant that she pretty much had to guess from where exactly a tail or claw was coming from.
Again, she suddenly cursed as a Xeno tail-blade whipped through the air above her head- inches away from scalping her. The only reason she knew what it was was because of the rush of wind slapping the back of her neck, and the sound of whistling air. This forced her to glance backwards, unable to shake the urge to determine where the threat was coming from.
The situation hadn't changed, except maybe if they had somehow switched places at some point. They all had their four limbs splayed out to either side, and their heads, spines, and hip joints moving with a constant, spring-like, side-to-side motion; with their arms swinging up and around to reach forward, yanking backwards for forward momentum, like a paddle scooping through water. Their legs looked as if they were swimming- it was much the same way monitor lizards move when they run, if she thought about it.
Sam could tell that all five of them were sprinting at full pelt in their pursuit. They were really trying to catch her…
She unknowingly sped up.
Even though Samantha was still keeping a distance of, at least, six feet between her and the Xenomorphs, she knew that she wouldn't be able to keep running- not in this chase. Xenomorphs have proportionally large hearts, like birds. Or... she assumed they did- she'd never done an autopsy. Either way, they could clearly expend more energy over longer periods of time than any Human, least of all her.
They might not have been able to outrun her, but they would outlast her. Besides, she had already been running for the past 10 minutes, her leg muscles felt like they were on fire, and not even the primal adrenaline rush of self-preservation was providing much motivation to keep moving.
She had to end this chase, fast. But where to go? It isn't like you could hide behind a bloody potted plant!
No… she, and any survivor of the Infestation knew, at this point, that you had to take multiple measures in a Hell-hole like this. Find something with a lot of electricity running through it, cover your scent with something pungent, and make sure that your "home" is sound-proof. That airlock in the marine tank had had all of those. Samantha had, sometimes, thought about writing a guidebook on surviving a Xenomorph infestation... should she survive the Infestation itself. But in order to do that, she had to survive this fine mess.
In her destination-less sprint, she sailed past a large window viewing a small park-area outside the complex. The five Warriors following behind, casting dark shadows behind her in the yellow, morning light. She looked around, for the umpteenth time, for an exit- an opportunity. Something to get the Xenos off of her tail.
Nothing, just more locked doors and room numbers. She furrowed her brow. For the first time in two weeks, she considered the possibility of dying. And not even the act of self-admonishment was enough to distract her from that distinct fact. The knowledge of it gave her a very abrupt headache.
But, alas, a light at the end of the tunnel appeared- a door that was hanging ajar at the end of the blue/gray corridor she had been running in caught her eye. Yes! It was only 30 more feet away, and the Warriors behind her weren't gaining any ground, so… she would make it! The only hindrance being that she would have to be very quick about shutting the door behind her. It was a heavier, more solid obstacle than most doors in this place, marking the delineation between Districts.
Granted, she had no idea where she would go after that, or what she would do. She supposed she'd have to cross that bridge when she got to it… soon, she would be able to find a new hide-out and get back under the Hive's radar. Soon, she-
Samantha felt something slam into her back. It knocked the wind out of her, and causing something in her ribcage to crack audibly. Whatever had struck her was hissing furiously but seemed to immediately disappear. Her mind briefly noted that one of the Xenomorphs had probably taken a leap at her. It took her body a moment to properly process the amount of pain the blow had caused her. Her spine flexed inward painfully and it felt as if someone had shanked her between the ribs with a rusty steak knife. It also took a moment for her to realize that the force of the tackle had derailed her feet and legs, and sent her on a short, cruel flight just above the ground.
No! No! This cannot be happening, dammit!, or some cacophonous, incoherent variation of those thoughts were all she could mentally register. The situation only got worse when she hit the floor, a mere 15 feet away from her escape.
Aside from the landing causing the pain in her ribs to flare up, the floor immediately fell out from beneath her, crashing and groaning as she plummeted into a sudden darkness. Debris clanging loud enough to put a stop to any thought. Time seemed to slow down as Samantha's body spun halfway midair, facing upwards. Nothing seemed… real to her. She couldn't seem to hear anything. It almost felt like a, uh… dream.
When she finally landed, spread-eagle and not painlessly, on a metal floor after what seemed to be a twenty-foot drop - an incredibly loud *bang* causing time to speed up again - her mind snapped partway back to reality, and her existing injuries flared up once more, along with newer ones. She'd hit her head on something on the way down- a seemingly never-ending, suffocating migraine throbbed in the back of her skull. Stars in her vision. She was only partly aware of thing things happening around her, and she knew that she was less aware than normal, but... she couldn't think straight.
She could hear the loud thumping of her heart in her ears starting to slow down. Debris, metal, and a few girders fell around her; the sounds of their impacts muffled from all of the blood rushing to her head. Again, everything suddenly felt like it was a shifted reality. As if God had put everything in slow-motion so he could more easily watch what was probably going to be her death.
A section of metal flooring fell on her chest, bringing a whole host of previously undetected pain from elsewhere. Her skull throbbed. Her left shoulder was probably dislocated. Her right leg was practically searing in what felt like acid. That square-shaped section of flooring was crushing her chest. One of her ribs was probably broken. Her spine ached and felt stiff. And she was pretty sure she felt blood spill down her scalp.
She looked up, bright... beautiful golden light filling her vision, catching a glimpse of a Xenomorph turning away from the giant hole she had apparently fallen through.
The muffled noises of the structure collapsing above and around her dwindled to nothing as the ceiling, above, seemed to have finally had enough of falling apart.
Well… still a better way to go than by Chestburster, she thought with a... new, bittersweet feeling of acceptance that doused the pain in her body. At least this way the Xenos wouldn't get the chance to kill her, themselves.
She had been a thorn in their side for a while.
As her vision began to fade, and the pain started rushing away like the tide of the ocean, she whispered, or thought she whispered, with a small smile; "at least I won't be a baby Xeno's first meal". She would've laughed if it weren't for the giant chunk of metal crushing the air out of her lungs.
The Soldier skidded to a halt as the floor of the structure fell downwards into a dark abyss, the human going with it. The entire floor near the open doorway had been drenched in a dried pool of acid, making the structure extremely fragile. Apparently the human hadn't noticed the corpse of one of his Hive-Mates nearby. He stood up on his hind legs and walked to the edge of the hole. The human was down there. He realized the thing would probably bleed to death. Blood was pouring out of its head, heart-beat extremely slow, crushed under a large square piece of metal.
He sent a mental image of the dying human through the Hive-Mind, to the Nexus. His Queen immediately sent back a feeling of irritation, and audibly called him and his group back to the Hive with a loud screech which rang throughout the halls. Though, he and his group didn't hear it from this distance, he knew that she was, indeed, calling. Mother would have found great satisfaction in the Hiving of this human. And his inability to make his Queen happy, in turn, made him annoyed.
He turned, stood upright, and walked back the way they had come, barking a short hiss to his group (who had been surrounding the hole, themselves) to follow him. He knew that a certain Hive-Mate, an Eye, would have to come to this area and patrol it for the next half of the day, or so. To confirm that the human was, indeed, dead. While he and his group would go back to the Hive to eat and rest, this Eye would be cleaning up the Soldier's mess. He felt annoyed at that.
The Eye and him... they were... different.
An hour-and-a-half, later.
Ryus had been ordered to search through a specific area for the corpse of a Human. And if he didn't find it, he'd have to find out where said Human went. That was what constituted about half of the average Scout's life. Although, Ryus was nowhere near "average". Every Scout would take up reconnaissance, and run "search-and-destroy" tasks for the Hive. Usually about 2-3 of these situations would pop up everyday, giving Scouts like him a lot of spare time they didn't need. Usually, they'd either eat or sleep during their "downtime", even if they weren't really tired or hungry. But Ryus was different. Very different. His Hive-Mates had never even given him a second glance to indicate any possibility of knowing, but his Queen had known almost immediately.
His abnormality was seen as an advantage, and thus Ryus was given more free rein and… "trust", as well as fewer responsibilities, despite the existing list already being painfully short. And if his "hobby" helped the Hive, then all the better. However, today was one of those days when he had to carry out at least one task for his Queen. And now, Ryus was trotting through a dark hallway. The lack of light and electricity told him that this entire floor had a power-cut. Apparently, a Human female had taken a nasty drop, and fell from a corridor above him, onto this floor. His Queen wanted confirmation that the Human was dead. What was interesting about this was that the Human in question had been quite a troublesome factor for the Hive's existence.
When asked how exactly this Human was "troublesome", his Queen told him that this Human had avoided detection and capture ever since the Hive had started. How exactly this was "troublesome", Ryus didn't know. If the Human was simply staying hidden, avoiding the Hive and its members, what trouble could she be? When Ryus rose this point, the Hive-Mates that were present "stared" at him. If they were Human they would have "spaced out" for a second, blinked a few times, and then shook their heads, and shook off the point. To them the notion of an "un-captured Host not being a grievance" was incomprehensible. To them, the safety and progression of the Hive was both paramount and mandatory. It was all they could ever want to think about.
But, as mentioned before, Ryus was different, because Ryus was Ryus. More on that later.
He tilted his head to the left and right, neck twisting along its length, scanning the structure around him. Still nothing. No colors or pulses of electricity. He had been trotting through this floor's hallways for about 20 minutes, and he still had half of the place to go. It was an underground storage facility where the Humans placed all of their surplus supplies. He had observed enough to know that the entire planet was a "colony", and a particularly important colony, at that. It, apparently, needed to have supplies like, food, water, and miscellaneous items shipped to it from other worlds.
Why such an important planet couldn't make its own supplies, Ryus didn't know. Maybe they were just lazy. Yeah… probably.
Because of the chronic and lengthy necessity standards required by many of the products stored here, the Humans had dropped the temperature down to freezing, and shut off the power to the entire floor; in an effort to preserve the various items in here for longer. Evidently, no one saw fit to undo this when the Hive sprang up. If the Human female did die, then her corpse would be ice cold by the time Ryus found it. Thus, he'd go without a meal. Of all the places, the Human had to die here, he thought. Just fucking great. He'd usually rather not eat humans - more on that later - but, because of his current assignment, he was forced to skip eating at the time he usually would. He'd probably get hungry in a day or two.
He opened his maw and breathed in, literally tasting the air, trying to find the distinctive scent of "Human". Because he and his breed of Scouts lacked dorsal tubes, he had to breathe and smell strictly through his mouth. Meaning that he had a more developed sense of smell, similar to a "snake". It also meant that he had to have his teeth bared, constantly, in order to not have to hold his breath all the time. Though, he tried to at least make it look like his mouth was closed.
As, the ice-cold air flowed into his lungs, he stopped moving, catching the scent of something… out of place. A sterile and… purely artificial scent that only Humans could have manufactured. He'd smelt it before. That aquatic tank?, he mused, skull tilting. The pungent smell of fish and what Humans call "chlorine". Hmmm… Mother did say that the Human female had been hiding in a "large box full of water"… could a fish tank be what she was talking about?, he asked himself. His brain clicked the two details together, and he broke into a sprint toward the source of the scent.
The dark corridors would have been impossible for a Human to traverse in, but when you've got a highly advanced form of echolocation, it all just looks black, with a white outline for every object. Well... at least, he thought the color was white. Having no "eyes", his kind could not discern color.
He continued running, taking a left turn at an intersection- constantly swiveling his head on its axis, probing for the Human. If she was alive, he'd see the electric energy of her heart, diaphragm, and lungs pulsing. If the Human was dead, he would have to find the body through smell.
He swung his skull to the left for the last time, catching a few flashing lines of blue (he thought it was "blue") "light", making him skid to a halt. An immense distance away, he detected minute blobs of pulsing azure energy. The Human was alive. Heart rate almost painfully slow, diaphragm struggling to breath. The sound of labored breathing passed through Ryus's' head. She was barely hanging on.
Like clockwork, he began to feel a heat in his skull and a rage in his chest. The Ancestral portion of his psyche became eager, but Ryus suppressed the rising burn in the back of his head. No. When I kill her, I have to remember every second, he reminded himself, admonishing the part of him that wanted to tear the hominid apart, limb from limb.
One of the things about "giving in" to the urge and the burn, is that it negatively effects your memory of the time period you spend in the trance. He prided himself on his self-control. And thus, kept his cool every time he had to fight or kill… forcing himself to remember those moments in excruciating detail.
A constant reminder. A deliberately-made ghost to haunt him. The perfect monument to what he hated the most about his existence. To what he couldn't control…
But, again, more on that later.
He sucked in a quick breath, torso only barely seeming to move, and calmed down. The Human was in the fifteenth room down the hall, on the left. 60 feet away. The female must have been in a great deal of pain. The sound of groaning that passed through his skull, the faintest of sounds he could perceive, being an indicator.
Ryus trotted forward, nearly silently, and toward the small wooden door that stood in the way of those bright blue lines that represented the electricity in the Human's muscles. Stopping in front of the closed entryway, he turned and rose to stand on his hind legs and reached for the door handle. Any of his Hive-Mates would have knocked the thing off of its hinges, by now, but Ryus had taken to opening doors slowly and quietly. Despite the constant, nagging urge to run in "guns-blazing", created by the Ancestral.
His clawed hand closed around the ice cold, copper handle. Ryus could feel his heart-rate speed up. As usual. He suddenly jumped, at the sound of the Human launching into a loud coughing fit- startling him. The Ancestral bucked in agitation, even harder. He didn't even know his kind could be surprised… at least not like that. He waited until she stopped. After all went silent again, he ever so gently pushed downward… and growled in irritation when the damned handle snapped straight off with a metallic *chink*.
Crap, he thought, raising the small piece of metal up to his dome. Apparently he would have to knock the fucking thing off of its hinges. Damn this frigid temperature, he thought, wondering why the Human couldn't have fallen into a sauna. Hissing in distaste, he tossed the broken handle over his shoulder. Coming up with an idea, his tail independently snaked it's way up and under his right arm, pressing the tip against the wood, gently. Just under where the door handle had been.
Samantha's eyes opened quickly. Immediately greeted by the low, bluish light of the afternoon that flowed through the hole in the ceiling of the room she was in. At first she hadn't the slightest idea what was happening, or what had happened. She groaned, feeling her bones pop and crack as she shifted where she lay. That was when she noticed that she was crushed under a massive, square-shaped piece of metal flooring. Then she remembered how she had ended up there. Oh God, please tell me I didn't survive that, she begged, internally.
She looked down as a bitter cold tortured her lungs, forcing a cough out of her throat. She was pinned under a few massive steel girders which pressed the square metal flooring down on her that much harder. Her injuries didn't feel as bad, anymore. Not quite as overwhelmingly painful as she remembered them being, prior. She reached with her right arm around to touch the back of her head. Feeling only what had to be a crusted-over scab under her hair, she concluded that the wound had sealed up before any major blood loss could occur.
Although she still felt way too fucking dizzy from the blood loss that had occurred. She grabbed a lock of her normally raven-black hair, and pulled it around so she could see it. Stained and matted with crimson. She cringed in disgust and flicked the lock out of her sight. It was still hard to breath, and her leg was still in a sizable amount of pain. But other than that, she was quite lucky.
Just fucking wonderful, she thought, frowning. The one time that she actually wanted- no, needed to die… and her stupid luck gets in the way. She guessed it must have been her ancestor's' Irish descent.
She didn't know how long she'd been unconscious, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She tried looking around, but it was too dark to see anything beyond the spotlight that illuminated her position, on account of the massive fuck-off hole in the ceiling. It would have been all upside-down to her anyway, seeing as though she was lying on her back and couldn't sit up… or move, at all, really. She erupted into a loud coughing fit from the biting cold in her throat. Damn… she probably had a cold now, too.
As morbid and/or painful as it would be, the reality of the situation was that Samantha either needed to find a way to kill herself, or get moving, fast. The Xenomorphs would probably find her, easily, like this. And they didn't exactly need her in "top condition" to have her Hived. The worst fate imaginable...
That is… if they haven't already found her. Okay, she really needed to get moving, now! Just as she attempted to get her arms into a position where she could push the debris off of her, she groaned as a new wave of dizziness, and fatigue struck her. Not to mention that her left arm would barely respond to her will, since it was dislocated at the shoulder. Which was weird, because it didn't really hurt, that much… that could either be very good or very bad. It could either mean that it wasn't as damaged as it could have been, or it could mean that she somehow lost all of the feeling in her shoulder joints while she was unconscious. Potential nerve damage.
Still, though, she tried to move her arms, again, and made an effort. Another wave of tiredness and pain forced her to stop, and made her limbs suddenly feel as though they were made of lead. What could only be extreme exhaustion set in.
Maybe she should… just go to sleep… yeah… yeah, a nap sounded good at the moment. Samantha closed her eyes to begin floating into blissful slumber...
Her senses shot straight up in alarm, however, when she heard an almost pained "creak". She oriented her head backward to find darkness.
*CRACK!*
Tendrils of fear sprung to action and strangled her throat, taking the air out of her lungs, as a small "hiss" echoed through the air. She gulped.
"Fuck…" she whispered.
Well… what else is there to say?... fuck…
Ryus felt his tail snap straight through the 5-inch wood and hissed in alarm. Fuck… I hope she didn't hear that, he thought. He looked up, only to hear the Human whisper a similar curse.
Fucking Hell, why did she have to hear that?, he asked himself. Seeing no point in taking a subtle approach, he yanked his tail out of the door and stepped back a bit. He dug his clawed feet into the floor, getting ready and gathering power in his legs.
The door exploded into a shower of splinters and stakes as Ryus charged straight through the obstacle. Head down, arm held in front of his chest.
Ignoring the Human's loud gasp for the moment, he chirped a few infrasound calls, each sound-wave spreading across the room, touching every nook and cranny. Being that the (now, nonexistent) door was sound proof, he hadn't been able to "see" into the room, that way. As the sound-waves bounced back to their source - Ryus's' skull - his mind immediately measured how much, and in what way, the sounds had changed. Creating an image for him to see. His kind had photographic memory, allowing them to be able to see the images only once, and still be able to navigate. It also helped in making his species such fast learners, as he was.
The room was quite large, filled in every corner with small to large wooden crates, no doubt with labels that Ryus couldn't read. Because he couldn't really discern color. Other than the electric energies that living things give off, that is. Unless the color he perceived, in that case, was merely a manifestation of his brains' effort to process the information from his electroreception.
Upon receiving the mental image of the room, he then understood why the Human female was in such pain that he had sensed. She was almost crushed by a section of metal flooring and several girders, a lot of them seemed to have acid stains. There was a giant fuck-off hole in the ceiling, flooding the room with low-light. It was fairly obvious what had happened.
He then noticed something about the Human which surprised him. She appeared to be calmly staring at him… or in his general direction, seeing as though he was still in the shadows. Her calm facade was most likely a reaction to how afraid she truly was, seeing as though an extremely prevalent scent of terror was currently wafting into his mouth. But, instead of screaming, or attempting to get away, like most Humans would do… she simply stared at him, wide-eyed. Probably well-aware that her end was approaching.
He chirped a few more infrasound calls, slightly stronger now, and was able to recreate a mental image in his head about what exactly had happened here. Low light was pouring in from the hole in the ceiling above the Human, creating a sort of "spotlight" on her. Neatly, this very spotlight also highlighted the middle of the room, where no boxes were. It was evident that she had probably made the weakened building structure collapse in on itself; most likely as she was running.
He then "returned" the "cold stare" she was giving him, as he took loud steps toward her, making sure she heard each footfall. Any of his Hive-mates would have already impaled the Human by now, while snarling in rage; and though the Ancestral was loudly demanding he do so - in the form of a searing sensation in the back of his head - Ryus adamantly refused. Causing the burn to ebb, and reduce into a bothersome ache. He always gave his victims at least the respect of seeing him first, before he gutted them.
The scent of the girl's (seeing as though she couldn't be much older than 20, by his judgement) fear was almost eye watering… if he'd had eyes. But, she surprisingly kept her cool, not "freaking out" as he stepped into the light. She could most definitely see him now. Though he didn't have "eyes", as a Human did, he could still see light and its sources, or the lack thereof. If he was correct, he believed that he and his kind possessed an organ called an "eye spot"- evidently somewhere on his skull. Despite his complete exposure, she still only gave him an unwavering stare.
Huh... tough girl, he thought. She had just survived a near-death experience, and he was about to kill her, yet she managed to compose herself. Whether from a need to remain dignified, or because of how debilitating her terror was, it was still impressive. Even if it couldn't really be considered "bravery".
That burning in the back of his skull came back again. He snarled aloud to himself. No! Fuck off! I have to remember this!, he affirmed to himself, and his instincts, even though his instincts… weren't really intelligent… or even alive for that matter. In truth, he didn't enjoy remembering these kinds of things. He was probably the only one of his kind that even cared enough to give this kind of stuff any thought. But he felt he had an obligation… to remember.
A responsibility.
Again, more on that later.
He swung his tail up, over his shoulder… and gently rested the tip of the spear on the female's forehead… resisting the urge to wantonly mutilate the Human, as his instincts kept begging him to do. The Human squirmed a little as the bronze exoskeleton of his blade drew a drop of blood, on account of it being insanely sharp. But she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Causing Ryus to respect this Human even more.
He barked a short hiss at her, hoping the implied message got through.
"Sayonara".
So... what do you think of our two main characters? I know you're probably asking how and why Ryus is so different, and seemingly smarter. All in due time, my children. All in due time. Expect an explanation at some point (and a pretty damn good one).
The echolocation that is described in Ryus's' assessment of the storage room, is most likely how Xenomorphs navigate. Plus, the domed parts of their skulls doubles as an eye -pot, as well as being an Electroreception satellite.
"Eye spot": a primitive version of an eye that can't detect color, but only light and dark. An organ that organisms such as worms or insects often have. It would make sense for Xenomorphs to have this, to be able to tell light from darkness, in order to hide properly.
"Scout": What Xenomorphs would call Runners, if they spoke English.
By my own hand, Archo.