"Guys...? Anyone...? I'm stuck," one of the guards' voices was heard through the semi-dark room. His voice was husky, as if he had just woken up from a long night's sleep. He struggled against whatever was holding him, until he managed to get his hand loose. His neck and head was stuck to something sticky behind him, so he couldn't really look around even. Getting a view over what was holding him was impossible as well.
So he looked ahead instead, coughing faintly. The room was dark but it was easy to see the large creature in the middle of the room. The Queen's head moved a bit at the sound of the human, a hiss erupting from her.
She had been busy along with her two daughters to cover most of the two rooms into the typical substance that their kind kept in their nests. It was easier that way to imprison the future hosts, as well as much better for their injuries. The injured Xenomorph had already healed to become a bit more useful.
A lot of the substance had been to cover the human entrance to the room, rendering it impossible to open unless the humans had some kind of secret regarding opening it. Normally, blocking their only way of gaining hosts was a bad idea, but the Queen's chambers had to be secure.
Especially now that she had just finished her own transformation in order to be able to lay any eggs, so that the captured humans could become useful.
D16 had been resting in a narrow hole in one of the walls, but she rolled out of it now, landing on the floor elegantly. Her Queen was restless and rushed, which influenced her daughters' minds more than she may have wanted to.
D16 watched the humans, before she moved away from the Queen, going to stand on one of the hills in the room, formerly a bunch of cargo boxes that had been covered in the mucus the Xenomorphs preferred. Her sister quickly went to replace the watch; after all, being the drone that was her focus, to care for the Queen and the younglings.
The warrior quickly moved through the room, leaping right into one of the more exposed vents now, crawling through it to the other side. The substance was already slowly spreading through the vents and the door to the more human area, which was good. The more of it covered the area the better for them.
But the silence from the humans disturbed the Queen. Her memory had learned them as aggressive, dangerous foes, not the silent, waiting kind. The wait was good for the aliens but it was strange too.
So D16 was sent out to see what was truly going on. Finally the alien could act as she was supposed to, as a scout to the Queen and not having to go in by her own whims. But her greater intelligence still served a purpose. Even though the Queen had been found, her survival instinct was still strong, not stronger than that she'd die for the Queen but enough to remain cautious.
D16 moved fast through the ventilation systems, keeping her senses alert. The corridors outside the nest smelled of humans, so they had certainly been there a lot and recently. But they had left something on the floors, standing devices that whirred and clicked in a familiar way.
The alien watched the thing move back and forth; before she ripped open the floor in the vent. She had barely placed her hands on the outside before the whirring stopped, resulting in a louder noise she couldn't entirely place.
The next second the whole vent was invaded with bullets, several of them grazing her skin. Shrieking, D16 moved forward, past the turret, but the acid from her wounds was quickly creating small holes in the vent floor below her.
She didn't stop until she saw that she had gotten past the turret. That's when she literally tore through the metal separating the vent from the corridor and landed right on the painful device. Her claws made short work of it, leaving it fizzling in its remains, the alien standing over it still.
D16 stroked her claws along the grazes on her upper body, determining whether she needed to seek shelter or not. But they were only that, grazes, so she didn't really need to. But these new devices… they were more worrisome news. And they certainly hadn't been there before.
The alien jumped over the broken turret, running down the corridor. No traces of humans so far, only the devices they left after themselves. As she came to a crossroads in the corridor, she looked around the corner casually. There was another turret, but just a few meters off. D16 didn't wait, as she dashed around the corner, leaping right at the turret, toppling it over while she stabbed her tail through it.
They were all traps; at least that's what the Queen gathered from D16. That's why the humans hadn't attacked them, they were waiting for them to willingly walk into these death machines. The Queen roared in rage in her chambers, the cry mentally echoing through her children.
D16 stood up over the turret, just as the Queen told her to come back to the nest and the child obeyed quickly, sprinting through the area until she could rest her feet on the Hive ground, already feeling better in her body.
A few eggs had already been laid, and her sister was busy with placing them out, near the humans stuck on the walls. The one that had been awake earlier, still remained alone in being in that state but he could do precious little as one of the facehuggers that hatched from one of the eggs crawled up all the way to his face, pushing him into the brief near coma like trance.
If he was lucky, he wouldn't wake up again.
D16 kept watch during the process, ready to step in, in case any of the hosts would struggle free and attack something. These eggs were crucial and as soon as all the humans were implanted with more Xenomorphs, the Queen seemed to relax.
With the nest secured for now, and more warriors on the way, she hid her vulnerable head under the neck shield, returning to her natural state. Sheltered, yet in control of the Hive's ongoings and decisions as well as its future children.
Once the hosts were once again subdued, D16 returned to keeping watch as the Queen instructed. Normally they'd just rest and wait for the humans to act, but the Queen was suspicious towards them now.
It wasn't until the day after that D16 was woken up from her resting state, by the Queen. As the alien moved through the two large rooms, the traces of hatchlings were all over the place. Old shedded skins and a few humans corpses that had yet to be disposed of.
The one lone drone in the nest didn't prioritize those duties just yet, but now… now was a different matter.
Five new Xenomorphs were spread out in the area, most of them near the Queen, as they were recently molded and still adapting to everything. But like with everything their kin did, they did that fast.
Now that they actually had a force to be reckoned with, it was time to do things a bit differently around here. Most of them were warriors, like D16, but even the drones would be used for this.
The Queen's shrill shriek made all the sisters attentive, as their order was quite simple. Eradicate any threats and find hosts.
The strict basics their kind always had. But at least this time they had the actual manpower to retort to those basics.
"Sir?" Two of the turrets have been destroyed," a guard sitting in front of one of the screens announced, pointing at the screen as he did so. Their commander stepped forward, to watch the screen and the cameras that were placed out in the corridors.
"Damnit," he muttered.
A scientist who was standing in the room, having been called there for his 'expertise' managed to take a quick look at the screen as well.
"Sir, now that the Queen is free, those… traps won't work very well," he said calmly.
"Won't work? It is damned aliens, they're animals. They shouldn't be able to figure out what a trap is."
"Sir, you're forgetting that the Queen's intelligent. We don't know much about her connection with the rest of the Xenomorphs but it's possible she's directly influencing them. How else could two Xenomorphs overpower two patrols at once?"
"Then what's your damn suggestion, egghead?"
"Evacuate, sir? Save as many as you can before it's too late?"
"Hmph. I have at least twenty guards left; I'm not abandoning my post!"
The other guards looked at each other, clearly worried by now.
"Sir…" the scientist frowned. "There's possibly another five more aliens out there. Evacuation is much recommended."
"I said no. I'm not losing my job because I couldn't hold a facility like this secure. It was perfectly safe here, if it wasn't for that one blasted bastard! I really hope the aliens have killed him already. You can leave, your advice is not helping me at all," the officer waved the scientist off. The scientist sighed, walking off in a hurry.
There were some screeching noises from one of the screens, most of the guards as well as the officer gathering there to see what was going on. A few bullets from a remaining turret had been all that had been fired before it had been savagely destroyed. The corridors were dark, but it was possible to see the fast, flickering movements of tails and legs, before each camera got destroyed with loud shrieks from the aliens.
Most of the guards had paled, looking at the officer now.
"Fuck this," one of them suddenly exclaimed as he dashed out of the room, followed by another two, leaving the officer roaring at them to come back.
"Warn and gather the patrols, quickly," the officer ordered the few that had remained, before he went to pick up a rifle from the table in the room. "If we're lucky we can just shoot them all down as they come for us."
"And if we can't?" the guards asked.
"Then we'll kill as many of the sons of bitches as we can. You stay here and keep an eye on the cameras, report everything on the radio."
The guard sitting in front of the screen nodded nervously, before eyeing the roof casually as the other guards left the room, shutting the door after them.
On behalf of the Queen, the Xenomorph force had split up and those following D16 were all the warriors, strong and fast, a moving killing machine. The drones had been sent elsewhere, in search of easy hosts, still gathering in a room of their own somewhere else in the compound.
D16's senses all picked up the increased mass of human activity from everywhere in the compound. An unfortunate patrol of four guards had managed to stumble right into the pack of aliens, which had resulted in a very fast extermination of the guards, with limbs flying onto the walls and blood gushing out over the floor.
So far though she refused to enter any large rooms, which was pretty much the only thing that blocked their movement. Large rooms could still mean gas, not to say an easy place to get trapped in. It was better to pick the lone humans off first and focus on the gathering crowd of soldiers later.
There was one thing that appeared in the Queen's mind, an idea of some sorts. D16 would have known it herself, had her memory and intelligence been a bit more advanced so the Queen would have to work as a relay. D16 quickly split off from the main force, running into another corridor on her hind legs in short strides; until she noticed the same humming in the walls that there had been before, when there was a power source nearby.
For some reason this place was unguarded, consisting of nothing more than a large room with beeping monitors and humming computers. D16 didn't pause, rushing to destroy every device she could in there. The power flickered off for a moment, rendering the whole place into pitch darkness. Nothing she had a problem with but the Queen knew that the humans… they'd have a problem with losing all their power.
D16 continued her own wave of terror, pausing to listen as she heard a lone human talk somewhere. The words were alien to her, naturally, but at the moment, any lone human was bound to be easy prey and one less problem. She pushed her claws into the cracks of the door that lead to the human, but she had barely pushed the door halfway open when bullets hit it and almost her as well as a very annoying flashlight, followed by the human screaming in panicked rage.
She hissed as the bullets continued even though she wasn't even standing at the door now, so her senses picked up an alternative way inside, crawling into the nearest vent. It led her to one of the corners in the room and in the protection of the darkness; it was really no problem at all to sneak to the floor of the room. The guard's source of light from his weapon didn't aid him much since he kept it aimed at the door, his hoarse breathing a sure sign of mental instability.
D16 charged forward without much bravado, using one simple slash with her claws in his neck to take him out. Once he was dead, she moved out through the vent again, going to gather where her fellow warriors were.
The officer had his own problems now, with the radio guard having died out… perhaps literally. Perhaps he had given those aliens too little credit, considering they had already taken out the compound's power. Not a difficult task to be honest, since they had few backup systems and hadn't secured the power room. So much for working for cheap companies.
"Sir, there's a few rumors that most scientists have ignored your orders and arranged for an evacuation themselves. Or rather… those that didn't run into a small pack of Xenomorphs did," a guard said, as he approached the officer who scoffed.
"Great, let's just feed the aliens more hosts, shall we?" he said annoyed. "Looks like it's up to us, boys," he announced in the room his crew had gathered in. They could hold up here for days, but there were still some preparations to do with setting up turrets and the like. Maybe a bit too late, considering how fast the aliens were moving. And he had a bad feeling the aliens wouldn't be reckless, with their numbers so strained for being an actual Hive. So them running head first into a pair of turrets didn't seem likely.
Most of the guards were wary and rightly so. They weren't marines nor did they have the right weapons to really fight an alien invasion. The plan had been to call for backup if something went wrong but that had been before their current officer had been assigned. Now things had just gone to hell and no one was really expecting to stay alive for much longer. People were already making deals with each other to be shot before an alien could drag them off.
The chaos started all too soon though.
The two men standing by one of the doorways to set up two turrets screamed suddenly, some shots were fired but certainly not enough. By the time another guard came to the spot, there was only rifles left, and traces of blood leading further into the corridor. More guards were closing up behind him to inspect the situation. With most of the soldiers moving across the room, the other two men at the other doorway were quickly dealt with in the same manner.
"Oh, god, they're planning! They're tricking us!" someone screamed. Rifles and flashlights were lifted upwards towards the roof and then towards the doorways that were now fully unguarded. There couldn't be more than ten of them left which meant that they soon didn't have their upper hand anymore, which was strength in numbers.
"Stop flailing about!" the officer shouted, or rather demanded, but his guards weren't paying that much attention anymore, too riled up to really focus on someone who they should rightly blame for being in this situation. Certainly, they lacked the discipline marines had…
The officer luckily didn't get much more to say, as a sharp tail ran through his chest, lifting him up from the floor briefly. The older, scarred head of a Xenomorph came within view of the startled flashlights, as she ripped up a larger hole in his chest when she pulled her tail loose, dropping him off on the floor among his guards, dead as a doornail.
By the time the guards thought of shooting, she was only retreating, her tail the only thing visible in the flashlights for a few moments before it too disappeared.
All at once the sound of hissing and shrieking Xenomorphs erupted, the flashlights showing that they were already surrounded by the creatures. Sure, shooting did happen, but way too little before the alien pack quickly descended on the humans. Several shots came off lucky, killing a few of the aliens, but not enough to save anyone. Some guards did keep their word, shooting someone in the head before a Xenomorph got their hands on them. A fast, preferred death compared to what would happen to those that stayed alive.
D16 sat on a few containers further away, the blood still trickling to the floor from her tail, as she listened to the massacre her sisters were doing. The Queen was pleased, at the last threat having been eradicated and with the drones having captured a lot of human workers. Those that hadn't fled in the flying machines.
But for now, they had a strong, safe Hive, that'd become even stronger with these new batches of hosts.
It was almost a week afterwards, that D16 had to move again, forced out of her needed resting state. The Hive had spread basically through the whole compound now, with very few remaining traces of there ever having been a human settlement under the mucus the aliens preferred. There were no humans left alive anywhere and the only sign of them ever having been there at all was their remains in the form of the many Xenomorphs.
Still, the Hive always needed more hosts, and it was time to find them. Many of the warriors, including D16 were sent off through the tunnel behind the Queen's chambers. They had yet to explore it, but the air in it sent off vibes to the Queen that it could very well lead to somewhere else than the compound.
The tunnel literally crawled with a pack of aliens for several hundred meters until they reached a large door, much like the ones in the Queen's chamber. The power outtake had unlocked the door and even if it hadn't opened fully, the cracks were large enough for several warriors to push through, into the fresh air.
The scenery in front of them was almost beautiful, with its mountains, light blue rivers and odd looking trees, colored purple and brown. A blue sun was high on the sky, providing the planet with the extra warmth that explained why the compound remained warm, despite the power having been out for days.
None of the aliens saw the beauty, certainly not D16. All they saw was a new hunting ground, filled with new prey. The Queen's shrill order sounded and the small army of warriors moved through the door and down the slopes, to continue feeding the Hive.
Well, that was the end of this story. I might, in the far future make a follow up. Depends on if I can plan out another plot or not, which isn't happening right now.
Thanks for reading!