Chapter 10: Xenomorph XX121

Data Log: 5.16.2235 (Acheron)

Species: Xenomorph XX121

Chozo Script Translated

As our colony on Tallon IV began to suffer the effects of the element poisoning its very earth, we decided to expand our settlements to other parts of the known universe. It was purely by accident that we stumbled across this moon of Calpamos, a body we would eventually settle and infamously dub "Acheron".

While our settlers were the first to establish a civilization on the otherwise dead moon, we were not the first visitors. A routine search of the moon uncovered an alien ship that had crash-landed centi-cycles before. While we were able to determine the origin of the ship as Mala'kak, we were more interested in the contents of its cargo chamber. Perhaps we should have taken heed of Engineer that appeared to have been killed by something springing forth from its chest, but I digress. We were foolish.

Our interest was in the large cache of eggs we found in what we mistakenly believed to be some kind of stasis. When one of our warriors approached the eggs too closely, a white crustaceous creature with several digit-like legs and a long tail burst forth and attached itself to his face. Try as we could to remove the Facehugger, it could not be done, its very blood dangerously acidic.

We were able to transport both the affected warrior and several cautiously obtained eggs back to our laboratories for study. The eggs were cryogenically frozen to prevent a repeat of the accident aboard the Mala'kak ship. While we discovered the Facehugger seemed to be simultaneously killing the warrior and keeping him alive, our scans showed that a second being was growing within his chest cavity. Although at first it appeared as a mass of tumors generated from his own cells, it soon became obvious that the parasite had somehow impregnated him. Within hours, the parasite fell off and died, and the warrior awoke unaware of what had transpired. We held him in quarantine behind explosive-proof walls for observation.

It was not long before this "child" burst forth from the warrior's chest, and he expired as expected. The neonate, we dubbed Xenomorph XX121, and decided to keep to study for bioweapons application. Its blood was of some of the most corrosive acid we had ever seen, and its adult form rivaled even our goals for Metroid in terms of lethality. Through sacrificing various non-sentient "hosts" we were able to create a small hive of these creatures, the eldest of which growing into a Queen as the others became drones to the hive mind. In studying their efficiency as a predatory species, we sent out findings to our scientists on Zebes, suggesting they model Metroid after XX121's multi-life-stage development and Queen-based hierarchy.

When XX121 became too obviously hostile to harness as a weapon, we ended the experiment for the time being and disposed of all live specimens. Only a few eggs remained within our settlement, and we have no current plans to resume the experiment.

As she finished reading the Chozo's log on the aliens, Samus stared blankly into her HUD. Once Portia had left her and it was clear all of the humans were asleep for the night, Samus had once again materialized her powersuit, remembering the log she had obtained earlier from scanning the xenomorph corpse.

Much of the information in the entry puzzled her and did not sit well on her conscience. Never had she heard of a Chozo colony on a place called "Acheron", and never had she thought about exactly what sort of species they had modeled the metroids after when they engineered them. Nor had she ever heard of a "Mala'kak". Given that she and the metroids were both, in a way, children of the Chozo, she had always considered herself to have a unique bond to the parasitic species, and she wondered if this meant that in some way she was connected to Xenomorph XX121 as well.

She didn't like it. It was not unusual for her to discover things about the Chozo when she visited their planets, but those planets had always shown signs of Chozo habitation or she at least knew of them. This place, Acheron, was different. There was no record of it in anything she had read about on Zebes or any of the other Chozo planets. As for the bioweapons research, it was unsettling to read the callous way in which they described the death of their warrior and the sacrifice of other hosts, but Samus was well enough acquainted with the harsh realities of science to understand why things were done the way they were.

Still, she thought back to her Chozo family she had known so long ago on Zebes. She had been a child then, having been rescued at three and sent away at fourteen. Old Bird had taken her so lovingly under his wing, and even the other Chozo elders had been kind to her growing up. If she ignored the fact that they had hardwired electrodes into her brain, chained the powersuit to her neck, and turned her from a human child into a walking weapon, that was…

She wondered what else the Chozo had shielded her from as a child. Metroid had been a project they were working on while she was amongst them, and she wondered if the Acheron colony had been around then too. Had the Chozo always been so deep into bioweapons research? And how many other "cousins" did Samus have wandering out in the universe somewhere? The concept of bioweapons had never bothered her growing up. She had simply been raised with the idea that it was normal, and she had never questioned their decision to build her into what she was, even at the cost of part of her humanity. Now, she wondered if there were sides to the Chozo that she had never noticed in her youthful naivety. After all, had any Galactic Federation citizen attempted to replicate what they did, they would be thrown in jail for illegal research, and not only would Samus not object to that, but she would be more than happy to make that arrest.

Motherhood had taught her quite a few things, but one of the most obvious was the way she interacted with her son. There were sides of her she simply hoped he would never see, and she had actively tried to shield him from such things, even if she was not always successful. It occurred to her that perhaps the Chozo had been the same with her, and she only knew what she saw of them, the faces they showed to their child.

Samus thought of her son. She had barely known him a few weeks, and already he had seen her kill someone and intentionally cause felony levels of property damage to a government rental ship. Fortunately, she also knew no one would say or do anything to her for either of those things. Use of deadly force had been completely warranted against the other bounty hunter, and as for the ship… well, at least it had only been an inanimate object she had taken her rage out on and not a sentient being. Still, there were other parts of her she hoped she could keep hidden from her child. She hoped her temper would never turn toward him, and she hoped he would never see her lose control.

She also hoped he would never see her in the throes of a flashback or crippled by a panic attack. Despite the warm acceptance of Adam, his family, and all of the therapists she had gone through over the years, her condition still embarrassed her, and having people witness her attacks always filled her with shame. She knew she should not feel that way. It was a psychological injury caused by her repeated exposures to trauma and was as real an injury as a broken limb. She had no reason to feel ashamed. At least, all of the pamphlets the Federation Army shrink's waiting room had said so. Still, it was one thing she never wanted her son to know about her.

Keeping her voice low enough not to wake anyone, she commanded her suit's interface to dial her ship so she could check on the boy. It had been over a day since she had spoken to him, and while she was certain he would be safe as long as he stayed in the ship, she thought it would be a good idea to check in with him now that she had a moment to breathe. However, her call went unanswered as the line on the ship's end continued to ring. Figuring he might just not have gotten to the holoscreen in time, she tried again. No answer.

Samus's pulse sped up as she pulled up a map on her HUD to check the ship's location, and her heart sank as she realized the ship was no longer in the spot she had left it. While it had not managed to do any damage to the ship, something had lowered the integrity of the shielding to 95%, and bioscans of its cabin detected that her dog was the only life form inside. Samus could feel her chest tightening as her breathing accelerated. In a futile effort, she tried calling the boy's cell phone, but the line was completely dead.

As she listened to the hollow dial tone, she stared through her visor in disbelief, her vision becoming red with rage. Rage at whatever had attacked her son and rage at herself for bringing him to this world. Rage at whoever had planted the explosives in Adam's ship and rage at Keaton for putting her in a position in which she had to choose either to endanger her son or allow the deaths of every survivor here. But the white-hot fury she felt gave way to a cold, calculating anger, and as she stood, she knew what she had to do. She was the infamous Hunter, and she would track down whatever had taken her child and make it pay ten-fold.

"Hey!" a hushed voice called out behind her as Samus was about to climb up to the hatch.

The armored bounty hunter turned around to face Ripley who stared her down, flamethrower in hand. "What?"

"You just leaving us while you think we're all asleep?" the flight officer asked her pointedly, stepping forward. "Need I remind you we had a deal, bounty hunter? I brought you to the General. You take me to Newt."

Samus stared icily back through her visor, but Ripley was not intimidated. "Circumstances have changed."

"No," Ripley said firmly, pulling her sidearm from its holster. "We had a deal. Newt first, then whatever your new circumstances are."

Her face hidden by the helmet, Samus's demeanor remained unchanged. "I left something important on my ship. I need it."

"There is a little girl out there alone with those things, Aran!" Ripley clearly conveyed her tone despite trying to keep her voice low. "You don't get to just decide that something you left in your ship is more important than that child's life!"

Samus remained quiet for a moment. It had been a long time since any human had stood up to her without wavering, especially not in her notorious powersuit that stood nearly seven feet tall, dwarfing Ripley in comparison. She didn't want to tell Ripley what she was after. She didn't want anyone to know she had a son, much less that he was here, but she felt a sudden empathy for the other woman's plight. "It's my son. My son was on my ship, but a bioscan just reported he's not anymore. I need to find him."

Ripley looked dumbfounded for a moment as she stared at the hunter. "Y-you have a son? And you brought him here?"

Samus nodded slowly. "Yes. I never intended to bring him here, but I was called out here on an emergency assignment, and he was with me. I was told there was no time to bring him back to his father and that if I took that time, everyone stranded on this moon would almost certainly die. And yes, before you ask…. He's fully human."

Ripley's face softened as she looked at Samus, so many questions running through her eyes. "I guess I just never expected… I'm sorry I assumed…"

The bounty hunter shrugged. "I'm not mom material. I don't blame you for picking up on that. His father has full custody. He was just sort of visiting me for a few days. It was… not the best idea we've ever had."

"I had a daughter," the flight officer volunteered, stepping closer as she pulled a folded and faded photograph of an old woman from the breast pocket of her flight suit. "Her name was Amanda, and while I was in hypersleep, she aged quite a bit. She passed away a couple of years back."

The mercenary stared at the photograph, noting that Ripley made no motion to hand it to her, and she nodded her acknowledgement. The woman in the picture looked like she could have been an older version of Ripley herself.

"So you understand why it's so important I go out now and find my son," Samus said softly as Ripley put the picture away. "There are only two people in this entire galaxy that I can't lose. One of them is the General sleeping against that back wall, and the other is my son."

"And you understand why I can't lose Newt." Ripley regarded Samus very seriously. "Take me with you to look for the boy. We might at least find one of them."

"No." Samus shook her head again. "It's too dangerous, and you'll only slow me down."

"Then if I'm slowing you down, power on without me," Ripley stated firmly.

"I work alone," the hunter barked gruffly. "It's dangerous. You're human, and you'll get hurt."

"Well those gashes in your jumpsuit suggest you didn't make out so well yourself last time, bounty hunter. Believe me, I wouldn't be standing here right now demanding that some half-human gun-for-hire take me out into hostile territory if I weren't willing to die to protect that girl. So either you let me follow along, or I'm going out alone anyway. And you better make up your mind quick because every second you waste arguing with me, those two kids are out god-knows-where with those fucking things."

Samus stared the woman down, her rage quietly asserting itself again. "Fine," she said in her cold, deep voice. "You can come along, but if you hold me back, I'm leaving you behind."

"Likewise." Ripley smirked as she cocked her side arm. "I won't hesitate to leave you behind if you slow me down, bounty hunter."

Although the other woman could not see, Samus curiously raised an eyebrow behind her visor.