Aliens: Between Heaven and Hell

by Karerease

Shawn McNeal a former technical mining engineer of the Belthor Gas, Mineral and Mining Company, turned courier and transport pilot unexpectedly finds himself thrown in the middle of a deadly situation between secrete corporate factions, mercenary forces and the deadly Xenomorph species. Warning: Human/Xenomorph M/M/F sexual situations.

25. Decisions and Consequences

Please feel free to review and or comment and thank you very much for taking the time to read this story, any constructive feedback is always welcomed.

xxxxx

Chapter 24: Decisions and Consequences

Trying not to draw attention to himself or look as anything was off, Ryun and his android escort went their usual route to his office, carrying a few extra bags slung over his shoulder which hung to his sides, thankfully the combat android did not say anything or ask as to what the purpose of the extra bags he was carrying was, more than likely due to a function that was not within its programming. Keeping his head down ever so slightly as to look like he was lost in thought, he would either nod or wave to familiar personal and colleges as he continually passed the morning shift personnel. A part of him kept expecting a squad of fully armed guards to come around the corner any second pointing their weapons at him ordering him to get down on the floor and surrender.

Much to his relief as he found himself at the front of his office door and walked in, his fears did not come to pass, at least not just yet, though the day was just getting started. Walking over to his chair he sat the bags down on the floor, turning on his workstation, he began to count down the minutes. Deep in his stomach, which was quickly becoming a pit of nausea and raw terror stirred, he had barely slept, even in the mental construct he was scared of what was about to happen so much so that the small warrior was not able to offer him much in the way of comfort or relief.

Bile crept up from his stomach, reaching over and quickly grabbing a trashcan he doubled over and retched up whatever he had left in his stomach, soon all he was doing was dry heaving. Nerves, he told himself, that's all it was, there was no denying that he was scared shitless, every sane part of his mind was telling him not to go through with it, to call it off, to let the Xeno be spaced, he was trying to push those thoughts back down, to tell himself that was he was doing was right, and since he was scared so damn much he figured that it must be right.

A small comfort at best if at all, for the time being, all he could do now was sit back and count down the minutes as each one slowly ticked by, and then see if he did indeed have the balls to go through with this it.

xxxxx

'You cannot expect the human to go through with his plan, he may want to help us, but he has too much to lose and we are not of his kind, why would he ever risk his life to help us. You are holding out for hope where there is none brother. I am sorry to say but I cannot see the Ryan human going through with this plan of his.' The scarred drone was pacing back and forth in the transparent cell, his nerves on edge as they had found out that their Praetorian brother would be sent into the void by the end of the day, where he would float until he died a slow and agonizing death.

The last remaining Praetorian in the pens stood up, while he and most of the others were hopeful that Ryan's plan would work, even if it was risky, they were all getting very tired of the constant negativity that their drone brother was bombarding them with. And while none of them could blame him for his cynic attitude, they needed to try and be hopeful that something good would come out of it. 'Brother, I understand your doubts, I do, but please do us all a favor and keep it to yourself fucking self, the Ryan and Elizabeth humans are the closest things we have to friends and allies in this place, no one else has tried to show compassion or kindness to us, much less go to the trouble of making contact. They have, and I for one would like to at least give Ryan the chance to prove himself.'

Snorting and hissing the scarred drone look right at his Praetorian brother, 'Yes, they have gone to the trouble of making contact with us, and look what has happened, Elizabeth was attacked by Mason and almost killed and even now we do not know if she will ever heal from her injuries, and Ryan is constantly under guard and his every move is being watched, what can either one of them do for us now.'

'You would be surprised just how resourceful the humans can be.' The large Praetorian's voice boomed in their heads, he had been eavesdropping on the not so private conversation going on in the pens. 'While I do not understand the technical aspects to Ryan's plan I do have faith in it, so I choose to believe that he will follow through with it.'

Unable or unwilling to keep his cynical negativity to himself the scarred drone spoke up, 'and supposes that Ryan does not follow through with his plan but decides instead not to help and let you die, there is that chance and you cannot tell me that that thought has not entered your mind at least once.'

'Brother please, enough of this,' the small warrior pleaded, 'he is the only chance we may ever have to be free, yes he is scared and yes he does have second thoughts about this, but I believe that he will make good on his promise to help us.'

'The promise of a human is less than nothing,' the scarred drone scoffed laying down, 'and even if he does free you brother, where will you go or do you think that the two of you can somehow overtake this station, the human warriors and their mechanical drones will cut the two of you down without mercy or hesitation.'

The large Praetorian voice rang out, laced with frustration and irritation by his brother's constant doubt, while he understood the drone's mistrust and fear the endless nay saying was wearing thin on his nerves. 'I don't know, I don't know where we will go, I don't know if we can be free, and your right we may die minutes after he frees me, or he may go back on his word, which I would not blame him if he did. What I do know is we have a chance and yes it is a small one at best, but it is the best one that we have ever been given and I will not squander that chance. Brother, all I ask is for you to give Ryan a chance to see if he comes through, nothing more.'

The drone said nothing for a while, finally lifting his head he slowly looked around at his brothers and sisters, most were looking in his direction waiting for any kind of answer, cursing himself silently a fool for giving trust to a human, he gave his brother an answer. 'Very well, I will give him a chance but not nothing more than that, I only hope that for your sake that he does follow through on his promise, for if he does not I will never forgive him.'

'We will soon find out then,' stated the large Praetorian, 'however if he goes back on his word I would ask each one of you not to hold it against him. Fear is a powerful enemy and he is forced to face it every day.'

'Then he has had a small taste of what we deal with every day, poetic irony I would say.' The scarred drone's words were met with a course of angry hisses immediately, while none of them had any love for the humans, Ryan and Elizabeth were the only ones that had treated them with any sort of respect or kindness.

'That was uncalled for!' Chided the small warrior, 'and unnecessary, neither Ryan nor Elizabeth deserve our disrespect, they are trying to help us, or he is now.'

A pang of regret filled his mind and heart and it was right then he wished that he could withdraw what he had just said. His sister was right, his offhanded comment had been uncalled for, from the start Ryan had tried his best to take care of them all, even going against Mason and his underlings. And watching Ryan beat Mason to a bloody pulp had been the most satisfying thing any of them had witnessed, even more so than their brothers escaping and killing a few of the scientist that had tortured them. 'I apologize, you are correct it was called for, I...I do not believe I can take this for much longer, a part of me wishes that I had died alongside my brother, he and I had strong feelings, desires to be a mated pair, and now that chance is gone forever, if we all had made it onto that ship...' And now that slim chance of happiness was lost, ripped away forever as far as he was concerned, a part of him had died that day and since then the hole in his heart and soul had been left to fester and rot. Everyday less and less of him cared, the universe was a hard, cold and uncaring place that did not care about them at all; in turn why should he give a damn about the universe.

He was so close to saying the hell with everything and everyone even his own kin and giving up completely and let despair take his soul; all it would take was just one more thing to push him over the edge and to plummet into that abyss. If Ryan did not follow through with his plan than that would be it, there would be no hope as far as he was concerned, if he couldn't hold onto hope then perhaps it would be better to feel nothing at all.

xxxxx

The door slid open, heavy footfalls echoed inside the tiny room and then stopped coming in only a few feet, only the sound of the mechanical sliding door closing let him know that the office was shut.

"You seem to be unwell; if you deem it necessary I can contact medical personnel to assist you." The lifeless, synthetic voice announced, the android stood motionless for several seconds looking down at the human lab tech that was on his knees doubled over.

Shaking his head, Ryan turned slightly to acknowledged the android, "No it's alright, just some minor stomach cramps that's all, I just need some help getting up," reaching out his left arm he hoped that the android would at least be able to help him get up. He half expected to hear the android tell him that that function was not within its programming. A room temperature rubber hand gripped his and pulled him up off the ground, not expecting it to happen, Ryan stumbled a step before regaining his balance.

"Thanks," he said, turning his back slowly to the android, "I just need a few minutes before we go, if that is alright." His right hand ever so slowly coming out of his lab coat, fingers gripped around the soft cotton cloth.

"Your schedule must be maintained, if you are unwell I will contact medical personnel for them to assist you."

A deep lengthy sigh was let out, shaking his head, "No, that won't be necessary, I'll go." Finally giving in, Ryan turned around, swinging to face the android his right arm outstretched, white cloth tightly wrapped around his hand, a large lump protruded at the end. "Sorry..." was the only thing he was able to get out before he took that step to cross the line that there was no returning from.

"What are you..." The android never got a chance to finish its question, a sharp crack ripped out in the tiny room, the cloth end flipped up for a second and dropped back down, black smoke and powder staining and scorching the once pristine white cotton fabric, white synthetic liquid compound sprayed and splattered over the back of the wall, door and ceiling coating the area.

For what seemed like an eternity Ryan just stood there, looking right at the android guard, he expected it to lunge right at him, only now, nothing; it just stood there motionless as if for it time had suddenly come to a standstill, its hands only an inch maybe less from his outstretched arm. Thick droplets falling, hitting the floor echoed in the office, only one white eye with pulps that could barely be seen stared blankly back at him.

Stepping back, he hadn't even realized he had been holding his breath the whole time until his lungs started to ache and burn, exhaling he found himself dropping down to the floor, taking in deep breaths, "Shit, shit, shit, fuck," he repeated several times over, the realization of what he had just done hitting him. Looking up at the android, he had expected it to fall down, over, not just stand there unmoving. Of the things he had seen in his life, it was one of the more freakier things, and one that he would for a very long time remember, or at least as long as he had left, which might be a very short time now.

Gathering his wits and remembering what was on the line, he picked himself up, a puddle of white synthetic blood was pooling up at the android's feet, he didn't know how long he had until security was alerted that their android was no longer responding, if not already, no alarms were blaring, so he hoped that that was a good sign. He needed to maintain a sense of normality, which would mean heading to the Xeno pins, feeling the aliens, take their readings load the cart up for the Praetorian and hall ass back to his office to collect everything.

If he could get that far without anyone noticing anything then maybe he might have a chance. Unwrapping the cloth from his hand, his Glock pistol still emitted small trails of smoke from the barrel opening that flowed up, his hand still shaking so badly that he forced himself to loosen his grip, afraid that another round might go off.

And that was another worry, that some passerby or sensor might have heard or detected the gunshot, with the door closed and the weapon wrapped up, he hoped that it would dampen the round going off just enough that even if someone did hear it they might not know it was a weapon discharge.

He needed to move now, time was no longer a luxury and in fact it was an enemy that he needed to not only get ahead of but try and beat. Stacking the bags he had brought with him on his desk, as well as a separate shoulder bag that held the magazines and ammo for his pistol, he placed his pistol under the bag. Going over to the android he removed the sidearm, another Glock, only this one was military grade with a dozen magazines that seemed to have various ammo for different situations, as well as a small but powerful taster gun with half a dozen charge packs. Dumping the weapons and additional magazines and charge packs in the shoulder bag he zipped it up and laid it over his pistol.

It would be nothing short of a miracle if he didn't get caught, walking out and locking his office up, he didn't see anyone around and there was nothing but silence from what he could tell, nothing unusual there. Trying to regain his composure he slowly walked down the hallway and toward the Xeno pens. His stomach growled and every step he took he could swear that he was going to double over and throw up again, just nerves, nothing more, he told himself, one step down a few more to go, pulling the trigger was the hardest part, the worse, Ryan was glad that it wasn't another person that he had to shoot, if it had been, he wasn't sure if he could have pulled the trigger, taking a life to save a life didn't seem to balance out, at least not in this case.

Getting to the Xeno pens and so far nothing had happened, no squads of armed guards descending down on him, no sudden rifle discharge sending his guts spraying all over the place, only the normal routine of the lab and it's personal. Walking in, and heading back to his area, he wanted to have hope that it was all going to plan, that the first part had worked, but deep down he knew that he wasn't going to be that lucky. Things never worked out the way they were supposed to, if they did Doctor Elizabeth Brooks, one of his few friends on board, wouldn't have had half her skull caved in by a raging psychotic lunatic.

Looking around the pens, he saw that most of the Xenos were focused on him, intently too, they knew what was going on as the android guard was not with him this time; looking back ahead he just needed to keep focused on what he needed to be done next. Get the cart, feed them, take the readings and then make it to the Praetorian, after that his plan would either work or it wouldn't.

Making his way to the storage area, grabbing one of the large carts he quickly loaded it up with the synthetic meat and was about to make his way out. Stopping for a few seconds he took several deep breaths to get his heart rate back down, the last thing he needed was to look nervous as all hell. Alight just act normal, nothing going on, the android is out for routine maintenance in case anyone asks. Ryan kept telling himself, running the excuse though his head a few more times to make it more believable in case anyone did ask.

As he pushed the cart through the pens, feeding the aliens and taking their readings, probably for the last time, there was a gut-wrenching feeling in the bottom of his stomach as if he was saying goodbye to them. He figured that after this it might very well be the last time he would interact with them in any way, his rounds almost finished up, the small warrior was the last one he needed to attended to, coming up to the pod, he placed the meat on the tray and began the download of the data.

While the data transferred over to the pad, he stood there looking up at her, she kneeled down until she was more or less eye level with him, while it was hard to make out their emotional state by their looks, he could feel sadness coming from the Xeno warrior, under different circumstances he and Elizabeth would have been ecstatic, bantering back and forth about the discoveries they had both made and experienced over the last few weeks with the Xenos. But now, now all he wanted to do was crawl into a dark hole and cry, he should have been happy with all the information that had been discovered in such a short period of time about this race, instead, there was just an empty bitterness at the whole situation.

A few more minutes passed by before a repeated beeping informed him that the data was downloaded, putting the pad on the cart, he glanced up at her, a couple of more moments passed by, a slow nod came from her, right then he got the impression that it was her way of saying goodbye to him. Turning around and gripping the cart handles he pushed the cart back to the large cooler to load up on one last serving of meat, this one for the large Praetorian. He had to fight back tears, afraid that he was going to lose it at any second, as he pushed the cart back into the pens, he didn't look at any of the aliens this time, he couldn't, any more and he would break down on the spot.

Leaving the pens, the small warrior never took her gaze off of Ryan, only when he walked out the doors and out of sight did she look down, a part of her wanted to rip her own heart out, it would have been far better than feeling the deep heart crushing ache that she now had to suffer.

'I am sorry dear sister, I truly am.' The scarred drone told her on a private link, fully aware of how deep her pain was becoming, as jaded as he had become he fully sympathized with what she was going through now and hated to see any of his brothers and sisters in pain.

Unable to say anything, all she could do was lie down and curl up, holding herself, her tail wrapping around her head and back as she formed into a small black ball of misery and grief as her heart seemed to crush in on itself sending waves of sharp stabbing pain through her body and soul.

xxxxx

Pushing the cart as fast as he could a part of him didn't care if he met up with a squad of armed guards, let them, he didn't care anymore, his chest ached and he felt himself falling into an abyss of despair. Ryan was starting to hate himself more and more for walking away like he did, but it was something he knew he had to do; if he had stayed any longer or even turned to look one more time, he knew he would have tried to free the small warrior right there on the spot. An emotional but what would have been an ultimately foolish move, the large Praetorian was counting on him and that was what mattered, he was hours away from being spaced not the small female warrior.

As before he never ran into a squad of armed troops ready to take him down on his way back, nor did any alarms go off as he had been expecting, only an eerie and still silence that was broken by the hard plastic casters of the cart as they rolled over tiny crisscrossing groves in the metal plating of the floor.

Arriving at his office a few minutes later, Ryan opened the door and rolled the heavy cart into the office slamming it into a wall, as the door closed he collapsed to the floor, sitting up against the wall clutching his head, every horrible negative situation poured into his mind, closing his eyes he tried to clear his mind and get a grip on the situation, it hadn't been until he had gotten into the pens that he started feeling like this and mostly it hadn't been until he had gotten to the tank containing the small Xeno warrior.

Slowing his breathing down, Ryan tried to take an emotional step back and analyze what was going on with himself. Fact, he had been feeling fine before going into the Xeno pens, well, as fine as he was able to feel considering what he was doing, but he hadn't felt like he was about to take a running jump and go plummeting feet first right into a pit of despair and dread. Fact, it had been right when he had gotten to the small warrior or more precisely right when he started to leave.

Breathing in a few long steady breaths he tried to get himself calmed down some, Ryan wondered if somehow she might have been projecting her own feelings onto him. He knew almost nothing about how this bond or link or whatever it might be the two were now sharing worked, and if this how she was feeling or even a fraction, then it was the first time that he had had any tangible proof that beyond anger or rage they had emotional feelings that were similar to humans.

While it would have made a fascinating subject to learn more about, on top of everything else he had started to learn about their race, there simply was no time. Getting his composure back, more or less, Ryan picked himself up off the floor, sliding a small door open on the cart that was for storage, carefully grabbing the bags he had brought and laid out on his workstation he carefully placed them within the storage compartment, all except for one. Opening the small bag open Ryan removed the small device that he had been working on, a small low-frequency short-range transmitter that would hopefully work on opening the Praetorian's cage, it was low powered enough that the range was only a couple of meters, but with any luck it would work, he would just need to have the device right next to the cage.

It was all ready to go, all he would have to do is get close and turn it on and hope...no, pray that it would work. Bagging the device back up into the small shoulder satchel he removed his lab coat, slinging the satchel over his left shoulder he put his coat back on, reaching over and feeling where the bag was and pressing down in several spots he found where the switch was. All he would have to do was give it a quick flick and that would be it, either it would work or it would not.

Steeling his nerves, he grabbed the cart and pushed it out of the small office, a place that he doubted that after today he would ever see again, not that he had many regrets about that, most of his time on this station working under Doctor Ford Mason had been what he would describe as a living nightmare. Guilt for the way the Xenos had been treated was a constant and dealing with Mason himself was like dealing with a living time bomb, one that had no qualms about going through with what he wanted.

There was now a weird sense of relief, either way, this part of his life was now over, whether or not he lived long to reap the rewards of what he was about to do was another matter entirely. As he pushed the cart down the hallway he softly hummed a tune to himself.

xxxxx

Looking back and forth at the two android guards that were stationed next to the only door in the room the large Praetorian's crested head slowly paned to the left then to the right, occasionally looking up and over at the two security cameras that were mounted on the wall. From what his kin had told him only a few minutes ago, Ryan was going through with his plan, his android guard was not with him, why, none of them knew, but it did not matter, if everything went according to plan, in a short while he would be free.

Free…

His heart raced at the thought of that, barely contained excitement gripped his body and soul, he had only known the confines of these clear cages for his whole life, only ever a few times was he and his kind allowed out into larger rooms and that was usually for tests, cruel and horrific tests that Mason would be ever present for, those cold, dead eyes staring at him and whoever else was with him, looking down at his brothers and sister with nothing more than loathing, utter contempt, and raw hate.

None of them knew why they were treated the way they were, it did not make sense to any of them, what had they done that warranted such treatment, he had wondered when mind-numbing boredom kicked in, which was often, what things would have been like if someone had only tried to communicate with them. How much pain and suffering might have been avoided if maybe just one of the damned scientists had tried to communicate with them in the past.

A wishful daydream, nothing more than that, however, at least Ryan and Elisabeth to their credit had tried and succeeded, that was something at least, something that did, in fact, mean a great deal to all of them. Pain gripped and squeezed his heart at the thought of what had happened to Elizabeth, he had watch Mason attack and almost killed her and he had been unable to do anything to stop him, despite being so close to freeing himself from his pod, it had been for nothing.

If only...if only he had gotten himself free, he had no doubt that he would have slaughtered so many of those humans, only sparing the select few that had done no harm to him or his kind.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door slid open, Ryan walked in pushing the large metal cart loaded with synthetic meat. When it came down to it, he had in truth no idea what Ryan was going to do to free him, as he entered the room the androids while didn't move, they did look at each other and then looked at Ryan. It was odd as he had never seen them do that before, maybe something to do with the not so small fact that the android that was normally with Ryan was now, in fact, not.

Turning his gaze back to the approaching human, he cocked his head as Ryan seemed to reach around and scratch his side for a second. Parking the cart right next to the pod the young human went through his normal routine, the meat was transferred into the pod and the readings were taken. He noticed that Ryan was looking nervous, glancing around as he continued to look at the screens, the human's heart rate was up and he could tell that his breathing had quickened in the last few moments.

A quick low sounding mechanical "click" came from where the door was, right then he noticed Ryan was slowly backing away a few feet from the pod door, his heart jumped as he saw that the door ever so slightly fell out of alignment, opening up just a fraction of an inch, backing up his whole body tensed up, the heavy tail blade slamming against the clear plexi-steel floor.

A deafening screech ripped from the Praetorian's lungs as he exploded forward, his body slamming into the door with as much force as he could bring. The door flew open slamming back into the clear pod wall, the hinges twisting and bending from the raw brute force. Spring out from his confines, he bolted toward the two combat androids with lighting speed, covering the distance in a matter of scant seconds.

Although both of the combat androids saw what happened and had been programmed to respond with lethal force if the situation was called for, neither one had a chance to bring their weapons to bear down on the hulking, black death that was charging toward them.

Dropping down to all fours and whipping around letting the momentum of his charge carry through, the deadly tail blade sliced right through the air, barely slowing down as the razor sharp edge cut through the rubbery synthetic skin, bone and organs. With a wet dull thud, the halves of the two combat androids fell to the floor, while liquid sprayed out, coating the floor and the lower legs and feet of the Praetorian.

He had expected their reflexes to be far better than what they had been, neither one had been able to raise their weapons more than halfway before being cut down. A few seconds later the door slid open revealing the other two combat androids, weapons drawn and ready to fire.

Bright strobing flashes lit up the small room with the deafening roar of weapon fire, the Praetorian's shrieked in anger as the rounds impacted off of his thick chitin bony armor doing little more than to invoke his full rage. Lunging forward, he reached out, he grabbed one of the androids by its head, his sharp claws ripping into the synthetic's skull and crushing the artificial brain to wet pulp.

The last android started to back up barely taking a couple of steps back as it continued to fire the pulse rifle, the deadly rounds impacting into the Xeno's armored body, only a few small sprays and tricks of the lethal acidic blood splattering into the nearby wall and floor eating into the metal gave any indication that the massive Praetorian had been hurt in any way, even if in truth the wounds were little more than superficial injuries at best.

A quick second later the head of the android was sent flying through the air as the Praetorian swiped a deadly arc decapitating the synthetic with his clawed hands. A dull thud echoed slightly as the head fell to the floor and rolled hitting the back wall, its pasty, white, eyes blankly staring openly into nothing.

Looking up at the newly installed wall mounted camera's, he knew that time was not on their side now, more of the artificial machines and human warriors would be coming soon, leaping up he grabbed the first camera and yanked it out of the wall, bounding over to the other camera he did the same, leaving the humans blind, at least in that room.

Now it was time to leave, turning his attention to where Ryan was at, he saw that the human was laying on the ground as he had taken cover behind the metal cart, smart move on his part to stay out of the line of fire and not get involved in the fight, if he could even call what had happened a fight. Looking down at his chest he noticed a few trickles of yellow blood ever so slowly running down the black bony structure and dripping onto the metal floor plating, smoke rose up with a slight sizzling sound.

Despite the heavy rounds that the androids had been using, his Praetorian physiology had all but made the weapons useless. Maybe multiple weapons, sustained over a period of time would eventually wear him down and kill him, but one or two, as he had just found out, did little more than break his thick, armored skin.

Walking over to where Ryan was still laying down his arms covering his head, he stopped and squatted down keeping a safe distance, last thing he wanted to do was accidentally injure the human with his blood, he let out a quick low hiss letting Ryan know that it was, for the time being, safe. He hoped that Ryan on some level would understand.

Uncovering his head, Ryan looked up only to see the Praetorian squatting down a couple of meters away, looking right at him, his head cocked ever so slightly as he continued to observe him. As soon as the pod door had slammed open, he had dropped the ground and taken cover, he had no idea about what would happen or how the fight would go, his money had been on the Xeno, but bad luck seemed to be systematic at this station and at this point nothing would have surprised him. Thankfully from what he had heard and was now seeing, the four combat androids never stood a chance against the Xenomorph at all.

Slowly picking himself up Ryan took a quick look at what was left of the androids, the grizzly carnage was unbelievable, in just only a few seconds the Praetorian had take out four combat androids, one had its head caved in so badly that it was almost unrecognizable, two others had been cut clean in half and the last one was missing its head entirely.

Deadly, quick and efficient, just as the ones that had escaped the station had been, they had left a trail of death and carnage that none one on board had ever seen or even come close to experiencing.

Ryan turned back to look at the Xeno, who had not moved an inch, it was in no way showing any aggression to him, not that he expected him to, but being in an a room along with such a large and deadly being was a bit unnerving, even if he knew that it had no intention of harming him, if the Xeno had, he knew that he would have died moments ago.

"Alright big guy, we need to get out of here, you may want to down as much of that meat that I brought as you can, not sure when we are going to get a chance to get any more food, other than what little I brought with me," Ryan said, reaching into the compartments and grabbing the bags that he had snuck in and slinging them around his shoulders. It was a curious thing as he walked over to the remains of the fallen androids that none of the alarms had gone off just yet.

Grabbing a few more pistol clips and energy packs from each of the androids and placing them in his bag, he could hear the Xeno tearing away at the meat that he had brought. He started to wonder if the security cameras were even working...no there was no way his luck was holding out this good today, though maybe the guard or whoever was monitoring this room had taken a coffee break or just hadn't caught what had happened. Or maybe Snyder was keeping this quiet as not to alert anyone and spook the Xeno, a cold chill ran down his spine at that thought, he figured that as soon as he opened the door he would finally find that fully armed squad with their weapons at the ready pointed at him...them.

But if, just if their luck was truly holding out, maybe they might be able to get onboard one of the outbound freighters or transports without anyone detecting them and then go from there to god knows where, though at this point, any place would be better. Right there his thoughts turned to Elizabeth, he hated the thought of leaving her here, even if Snyder was able to protect her from Mason, he had no idea how long it would be before this place consumed her. That was IF she ever recovered, as bad of shape as she was in he couldn't risk moving her, no matter how much he wanted to.

Ryan was so preoccupied in his own thoughts that he never heard the Praetorian walk up behind him. It was only when the Xeno reached out and placed his hand on Ryan's shoulder, startling him slightly that he realized that the alien had finished eating and it was now time to go.

Walking over to one of the androids that had been cut clean in half, Ryan knelt down, upholstered the stun pistol and pointed it in the direction of the pod, the alien tilted its crested head, curious as to what he was going to do with the weapon. Letting loose a volley of blasts from the pistol, Ryan strafed the area around the pod hitting the pod's control panel several times, sparks flew, smoke began to trickle up followed by a small fire. Using his lab coat he wiped his prints off the weapon and placed it in the android's hand.

Perhaps it might look like the syntactic had gotten off a few shots off with the stun pistol before being taken out; hitting the pod's control panel would hopefully erase any evidence that Mason's card had been used in any way. "Can you do me a favor and crush this things head, make it look like it happened in the fight?" Asked Ryan getting up and backing away a bit.

Noticing that the Xeno seemed to almost smile at that request, something that he had never seen before, the steel colored teeth, bits of warm drool trickling down to the floor, it was a bit unnerving to see so close up without any sort of a barrier between the two of them, it was something he was going to have to get used to and quickly. Taking a step up, the Praetorian raised his foot and slammed it down crushing the synthetic's head to a white mushy pulp. Retrieving any info about the fight from that unit would be next to impossible.

"Alright, let see if we can get out of here and stay hidden or if we both are going to be facing a firing squad." Hitting the button next to the door, the door slid open, both Ryan and the large Praetorian were expecting to have guards with weapons raised, but nothing, peaking their heads out of the doorway and into the hallway only to see nothing, no personal, no guards, nothing at all.

"If I remember right there's a maintenance hatch around the corner and down about a few dozen meters, we get to that we should be able to get into the inner guts of this station and hide for a while, figure out where we need to go from there." Ryan's heart was jackhammering in his chest as he inched along, the massive Xeno literally inches behind and towering over him. At this point, he would have felt better if the alarms had been going off and a warning was going out that a Xeno was now on the loose, not this eerie silence that seemed to be closing in on them.

Making their way down the hallway and around the corner Ryan spotted the heavy maintenance hatch just a few dozen meters down, yet still no one was in the area, and while it was a section of the station that was not readily used by most of the personal, it was still unusual that no one was around, he at least had half expected to see the odd maintenance worker or guard around.

It didn't matter, once inside they could hide and plan what to do next. Breaking into a quick run, both of them coved the distance in short order, unlocking the hatch Ryan pulled the heavy steel door open, thick hinges squeaked in protest as the door was pulled open. "Alright big guy in you go," Ryan told the Xeno, the alien tilted his head to the side and looked down at Ryan as if he was unsure about this plan all of a sudden.

"We can't be out in the open like this, otherwise we are going to get shot at real damn soon," Ryan told him, the tension and frustration in his voice rising, the last thing he wanted right now was to be spotted by some random person walking around, not that it mattered anymore, as soon as he finished speaking the alarms started to blare. "Well guess someone found out that you're free."

The Praetorian didn't need any more persuasion at that point, going down to all fours, he turned his head and squeezed himself through the door, Ryan was right on his tail looking in both direction to see if they had been spotted, he thought he could hear the sounds of footfalls echoing in the distance. Slowly closing the hatch to stifle the noise from the hinges, the door closed with a dull but soft metallic click, locking the hatch up the two started to make their way through the labyrinth of maintenance tunnels.

Slinking around the twists and turns going over, under or around metal pipes, conduits and t trying to stay quiet as possible, neither one had any idea where they were going nor what their location was, Ryan had tried to keep a mental map but had soon given up on that as he could no longer keep his bearings on what section or level they were on.

Even in the tunnels and shafts, through the thick walls he could still hear the security alarms going off and muffled announcements on the PA, while he was unable to make out the words, he figured that it was something along the lines of "Xeno loose, lock down in procedure, matinee calm" or some shit like that.

Occasionally the two would come across a grate or grill that gave them a view of the hallways or rooms, it seemed that Commander Snyder had every guard, combat android both standard and heavy out on patrol looking for the Xeno, and now probably him as well. Ryan had no doubt that the android guard that he had put a bullet though had been found, there was no way he could ever explain that. He knew he was in so deep that there would be no way he would ever be able to talk his way out should he be caught. He wondered if should have grabbed one of the pulse rifles and brought it with them, then quickly dismissed the idea, no…they needed to be able to move quickly and not get loaded down, besides the last thing he needed was to have a weapon that he had never fired go off by accident and either injure him or his new companion and give away their position.

Spending the next few hours going around, having to lay still and be quite as possible when a patrol was near, the two found themselves in a fairly large room that had large sections of pipes and conduits snaking in and out of the walls, ceiling, and floors. The room was fairly warm and slightly sticky, while not really uncomfortable; it was hard to see anything as only a few red lights placed around the room offered any illumination at all.

The Xeno rose up and stretched out, letting out a lengthy hiss, almost immediately he started to relax some, the air was warm, humid, comfortable, and deep down some long forgotten instinct rose up in the back of his mind and told him that this area was safe and the perfect spot for a nest, a hive. Looking around there was enough room to move around and to stretch out and even dark enough with plenty of cover to safely sleep, but not big enough for a hive of any kind, not that he could ever start one. Only a queen could do that, and that was something that they had never had, and for all he knew, something they never would.

Ryan looked around, reaching into one of his bags, he fumbled around until he found what he was looking for, pulling out a flashlight he hit the button a couple of times, the tube glowed softly lighting up the area enough for him to see. "I think that may be one of the sub-junction rooms, some of this looks like power cables, heating and cooling vents, hot and cold water as well as waste tubes." The ceiling looked to be around thirty feet tall, large pipes and conduits coming in and splitting off and running to other areas of the station. "But other than that I have no fucking clue as to where exactly we are at."

Sitting his bags down on the floor, Ryan leaned up against the steel bulkhead wall and slid down, "Well, guess I'm in all the way now, you know I almost didn't go through with this, came so close to backing down a few times, I don't know what kept me going and I honestly don't know if we are going to make it." Ryan said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. Now that he had a chance to relax and maybe even rest some, the emotional high, the fear, terror, wounding if he was going to die earlier, all that tension finally started to drain away leaving him exhausted.

Sauntering over to where Ryan was sitting the Praetorian knelt down, leaned in and lightly pressed his forehead against Ryan's, startling the human slightly. He was grateful to this human for releasing him and helping him escape, he would now do what was necessary to protect him, he owed him that at least, for now, however, he could at least offer Ryan thanks for what he had done.

From spending time with the small warrior in the mental construct he had come to recognize this gesture as an act of thanks, a way to comfort, or sometimes it was both. Ryan was a bit taken back by the act, being in physical contact like this, it was a bit unnerving, not that he thought that the Xeno was going to kill him, it was just something he wasn't expecting. Looking up he could now see the all too human-like eyeless skull through the semi-transparent dome, it was something he had caught glimpses in the past but never long enough to really get a good look at, now he was getting a very up close and personal look.

"Ummm, you're welcome," Ryan said meekly, hoping that he had given the correct response.

Pulling back a bit, the Praetorian nodded slightly letting him know that it was. He sat there unmoving for a couple of minutes simply observing Ryan, the human was exhausted, as he had been through a flurry of strong emotions throughout this whole ordeal and it was no surprise that he was starting to nod off as the emotional tension was wearing off.

'Sleep little one, you will need your rest, strength, and wits if we are to survive and have any chance to release my race.' And although he knew that Ryan could not hear him, at least not yet, maybe on some level the human might pick up on what he was thinking now that his mental shields were lowering as he began to slip away.

Moving away and sitting down, he figured that he would need to contact his brothers and sisters to let them know he was alive and for the time being safe. None of them had tried to contact him yet, he figured that they were scared that any sudden distractions might result in injury if he was in the middle of a battle with the human and synthetic warriors.

Opening his mental link to the others in the lab he was met with a barrage of concern and questions, all of them wanting to know what had happened, was he free, if so, where was he at, was he was alright, had he been injured.

He quieted their concerns letting them know that he was alright, and in hiding with the human Ryan, and his injuries were little more than scratches. He was however curious if anything was happening back in the lab now that he had escaped.

'More of the human and machine warriors are in here now all of them are heavily armed; a number of the scientists are very scared now, they seem to dislike the idea of you being on the loose.' The last reaming Praetorian in the lab said with a hint of amusement and satisfaction in his voice. 'Perhaps they are afraid of you doing something unpleasant to them.'

'That thought has crossed my mind and now they have good reason to fear,' replied the large Praetorian to his brother, he looked over at Ryan who was now fast asleep, odd little noises came from him as he breathed in and out. As much as he wanted to go out and kill some of those in the lab, such reckless action would get them nowhere, he needed to be smart and stay out of sight and avoiding the patrols would a challenge, he had no disillusions that every human and synthetic warrior would out hunting for them and would not stop until he was captured or killed, which at this point was the more likely scenario.

'Was Ryan injured, how did he do?' The small warrior asked, worry laced her mental voice as she had grown very fond of Ryan since establishing the mental construct and being able to visit and get to know each other.

'Exhausted from the stress but sleeping, for now, he was afraid the whole time but did what needed to be done, Ryan is a brave human, I hope that I can keep him from harm.' The fear that he had picked up from his sister seemed to drain as soon as she heard that Ryan was alright. 'I will need to scout and mark this area and become familiar with it, if anything of interest happens in the lab let me know right away.'

'We will, good luck my brother.' The other Praetorian said.

Standing up, he walked toward the exit of the sub-junction room and into the labyrinth of inner hallways, tubes, pipes and shafts. Stopping at the doorway he took a look back at the sleeping human, he would not be gone any longer than a few hours. He doubted the patrols would be this far in so soon, and while Ryan might not have had good direction sense, thankfully he himself did, and he knew that they were far away from the room that he was freed from.

A few distractions might become necessary to keep the human warriors that would be searching for them away from the area, maybe a false nest or two could be set up to lead them in the wrong direction, or perhaps a sighting or several at the opposite side of the station, it was something that he would need to think on as he entered the inner workings of the station to scout around.

xxxxx

A warm breeze swept across the grass laden planes, the smell of sweet flowers, age-old trees, and clean water from a nearby lake filled his senses as he took a deep breath, for a brief second confusion entered his mind as he wondered where he was but was quickly dispelled as he remembered that he was now in the mental construct.

Looking around he didn't see the small warrior yet, normally she would either be there waiting for him or would show up shortly after he went to sleep. With no sight of her, Ryan sat down on the soft grass and waited, while he knew that this place was nothing more than an illusion, a fabrication of the mind, but it was a place that he had come to enjoy and even looked forward coming to.

Minutes passed by, then from what he could tell almost half an hour before he felt her presence as she arrived in the construct. Coming up next to him, she sat down, her tail coiling around his waist as she drew him in wrapping her arm around his shoulder. Ryan could tell she was tense, nervous even scared, reaching around he wrapped his arm and her backside as best as he could and pulled himself in as close as he could.

A stillness, taunt and silent, hung between the two, as if neither one knew what to communicate to the other, Ryan had plenty that he now wanted to say, he just couldn't come up with the words, more than anything he was afraid that whatever came to mind would be clumsy sound foolish at this point. Maybe just sitting here right now was all either one of them needed, for now, leaning over he rested his head on the side of her arm.

She let out a slight hiss letting him know that she was grateful for the act of comfort and appreciated all that he had done for her and her kind and that she would be forever grateful to him for what he was now doing.

While Ryan could not understand the words to what she had said, if there were indeed words, the feeling that was behind that small hiss had made it more than clear. "You're welcome," he said, looking at the natural landscape enjoying the company he was now with, wondering just how long he would be able to stay like this. Maybe minutes, maybe hours, he had a feeling that when it came down to it, he would be woken up either by the Praetorian or by guards that were searching for them. But for now, he just wanted to try and relax and spend some time with a being that he was coming to care for a great deal.

xxxxx

Moving silently, purposefully; methodically through the winding network of ducts, pipes, and conduits the large Praetorian continued to meticulous scout out the area mapping everything in his head, trying to gather as much information as he was able to. He had stopped by vent areas, listing to what the humans were saying as staying still when the search patrols came by. Many of the personnel were on edge now, not knowing if one of them was going to be attacked or abducted, already wild speculation of Ryan's disappearance was running rampant, most thought that the Praetorian had carried him off to kill and feast off of his body.

It would have been amusing if the rumors were not so wrongfully sad and misguided.

Continuing to move on he was going to search for another thirty minutes then head back to the sub-junction room when a voice caught his attention, it was a voice that he knew all too well, and one that he hated wholly, that voice, it brought up a deep seethed rage and hate, emotions that he was forced to hold tightly in check. Finding a grate to observe though, he saw who it was, while it was not Mason, the human was perhaps only second to the scientists that they all hated, while they could tell that something was very wrong with Mason as a human as he did not process or feel emotions as most normal humans did, however this particular human reveled in his races suffering, this human was known as Steffen to all his kind onboard.

How many times had he taken away their elder brother, only to violate, hurt, humiliate, even rape him over and over again, all the time laughing, taunting...mocking their brother while he relentlessly penetrated and forced himself inside the drone?

While he had told himself that he was not going to go to the labs to kill any of the scientists, he had not made any kind of promise that he wouldn't follow at least one certain scientist and deal with that piece of filth when no one was around. Resolving himself to this one task before heading back, he began to follow behind, while there were several times that the human scientist was alone in the hallways and it would have been an opportune time to plummet through the vents, grab the piece of filth and deal with him right there, however he wanted to take his time with this one.

Having to stop or slow down due to search patrols he never lost sight of his prey, his heart began to race with what was to come, after all this time all the hurt, the pain, being forced to watch his brothers and sisters writhe in agony and never being able to do anything about it, now he could at least prevent this piece of human garbage from ever hurting any of his kind ever again.

His human quarry went down several levels, taking him that much further away from the sub-junction room that Ryan was at; finally after more twists and turns the human scientist finally stopped and entered a large area with several rooms. Though the vents and grates he saw what looked, at least from what info he had picked up from Ryan and Elizabeth, like to be the resting area for the humans, their own personal hive or nest. He smiled to himself, this would be perfect, no one was around, they would not be interrupted, and he could make this piece of human filth suffer, at least for a little while.

He would wait for while to see what the human would do, maybe go to sleep, yes that would be perfect; unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted as someone was pounding on the door. He could not see clearly but the human did walk to the door and let someone enter. Who it was he could not see just see yet. But the new voice was one of a human female, one that he did not know.

"Well I'm here, what do you want?" She said, displeasure lacing her voice.

"You know what I want."

"Alright, fine, but two stipulations, one it'll cost you extra."

"How much extra?"

"Two-hundred on top of what you're paying for."

"Two-hundred?" Steffen scoffed, almost laughing, "Lady you might act high class with those prices but trust me your not, one fifty."

"One-seventy-five then, and that's as low as I'll go considering what you're wanting and what you did to me last time, if you don't like it, go jerk yourself off in the bathroom or where ever it is you get off at."

"Fine, one-seventy-five, what's the second stipulation." He asked.

"That you lube up this time, last time you went in dry my ass hurt like a son of a bitch a few days, and I don't want to have that happen again."

"Your body, your problem, not mine."

"Fine, have fun by yourself then; I've got better things to do than let you fuck me dry again."

"Alight fine, shit, I'll lube up, anything else?"

"Yea, no ramming in either, go slow at least at first."

"Christ, next you're going to want flowers, chocolates, maybe I should break out a bottle of Champaign too and whisper sweet nothings into your ear."

"Personally I would settle for you not being a total fucking asshole all the goddamn time."

"Well, I am an ass-man as you know."

"Minus the man part."

"That's really cute and original, very funny, now get the fuck undressed so we can get this little transaction over, I've had a shit day and would at least like to blow off a little steam before trying to get some sleep." Steffen barked waling over to his bed, the human female in tow.

"Oh yeah, that's right, heard that one of your pets escaped, wandering around the station as we speak, rumor is that that tech guy, Ryan is it, that was his name, correct, either got nabbed or helped that alien of yours escape."

"Yea, and now our pod is on lockdown cause of that little, worthless shit-stain, isolated from the main hub and the other three pods, and sooner or later that big fucker is going to come out from somewhere nab someone and make Xeno chow out of them. Personally, I hope that it killed Ryan and is munching on his face right now, guy was always trying to coddle those ugly ass things, treated them as if they meant anything, and let me tell you those damn Xenos are nothing more than a bunch of dumbass animals and that's it. Personally, I hope Ryan got ripped apart, it's exactly what he deserved. Now, why don't you take off that jumpsuit, spread your legs and let me get down to business, the sooner we start the sooner we can finish up and I can get some sleep."

"You don't seem to be all that worried; you know something the rest of us don't?" She commented removing her maintenance suit, socks, and shoes, turning around, she placed her hands on the bed and leaned over. She was ready to have this done and over, she needed the cash but dealing with this ass-hat Steffen was going way over her tolerance level for dealing with B.S. and he had it in bucket loads.

"That Praetorians too big to be sneaking around in any of the vents or anything like that, so I'm not too worried about it coming crashing through the ceiling or anything like that, besides we have patrols around going around the clock, if it shows up we'll know. If it was a drone or warrior I might be worried, but like I said, it's way too big, hell it's probably stuck in some hatch or vent right now." He said, undressing and applying the lube to his rock hard member and coming up behind her, he grabbed her hips and positioned himself ready to enter.

"Hope you know what you're talking abou..." She cut off as pain ripped into her rectum, "FUCK YOU, I TOLD YOU NOT TO RAM IN LIKE THAT! THAT FUCKING HURTS." She screamed at him, gritting her teeth until the pain let up.

"Relax, you're getting paid, I'll even though in that extra twenty-five like you asked for." He grunted, his mind now in a full lust induced haze, speeding up and ramming in all the way, within a few minutes he speed up more, pumping as deep as he could go, climaxing and unloading inside of her. "Yea, that's much better." He said, yanking out; walking over and messing with a datapad on a counter. "Cash has been transferred, now time for you to go." He said, unaware that just above not more than a few meters away, everything that he had said and done had been carefully watched.

"Next time...there is no next time, you want to pull that crap get a fucking synthetic pleasure bot!" The lady berated him, putting her clothes on, "I told you not to go in like that, and now I'm bleeding out some."

"Like I said before, your body, your problem, you agreed to it and you got paid, so quit bitching about a little bit of blood and pain, you'll heal, so get over it and get out." He said walking to the restroom to clean himself.

"Fucking asshole," she muttered under her breath, as she finished getting dressed and stormed out.

Having witnessed the whole scene left the Praetorian with a sick feeling in the bottom of his stomach, this little display had only made the intense hatred he had for the human scientist Steffen burn that much more, not only had he repeatedly raped and violated one of his brothers, but he seemed to treat his own race with almost as much contempt and disdain as his own, seems that Mason had willingly picked the excrement of the human race to work for him. Anyone that he would have to kill he would normally try to make it as quick and painless as possible, this piece of garbage, however, he was going to make him suffer and take his time with.

Listening to what was going on within the small confines, he heard the sound of running water, the smell and feel of steam wafted into the area, the human was cleaning himself it seemed, good, it would give him time to see about making an opening. His claws gripped around the small holes in the grate, giving a slow but firm pull, it resisted at first, creaking and groaning as he pulled, a small popping sound came from the grate corners as the bolts flew out. Stopping, he listened, waiting for a reaction from Steffen, nothing ever came, the sound of water continued to flow as more steam came from the room the human was in.

Pulling some more, the grate gave and came detached, the hole was small but not so small that he would not be able to slip through when the time came. If the human Steffen truly believed that he was so big that he would be unable to traverse the maze of ducts and pipes then the human was about to be in for a very unpleasant surprise shortly.

Placing the grate back into place as the sound of flowing water stopped, he waited, a few minutes later Steffen walked out of the room drying himself off. Throwing the towel over the head rest of a chair, he plopped down into bed and covered himself up. "Computer lights out," he barked.

Yes, little filth, go to sleep, that human female will be the last one you hurt or breed with. He thought bitterly to himself, listening to the breathing patterns of the human, gradually Steffen's breathing slowed down, noises similar to what Ryan was producing came from him only louder. Ever so slowly he lifted the grate up and placed it to the side, going in head first the Praetorian's body seemed to twist and contort, almost unnaturally so, allowing him to slip through the vent opening, his tail coiled around a nearby pipe for support, extending his arm out, his hand made contact with the floor, turning his body he seemed to almost flow out like a living mass of black liquid from the vent opening until his entire bulk was inside the room.

Slowly rising up, he turned toward the soft, comfortable bed that his human prey was laying on, completely oblivious to the deadly predator that was now in his room. Taking a few quiet, deliberate steps one at a time he was at the side of the bed, leaning over, he peeled his lips back, warm drool started to pool up and dripped down in wet clumps landing on the human's face.

Groaning and waving his hand around, half asleep, "What the hell…" Steffen moaned still partly asleep, another warm, wet drop of saliva landed on his forehead, irritating him even further, opening his eyes partly he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, though the room was almost completely dark now. "Computer lights," he said, as the lights came on, his eyes widened open to the gruesome, midnight, black toothy horror leaning right above him. He could have sworn that it was smiling right at him, oh god, it was smiling at him.

He was about to scream to alert the guards, to get someone in here right away, to save him, only as soon as he opened his mouth and started to breathe in, to yell out to someone that might or might not hear him, the Xeno's hand shot down grabbing his head, clamping tightly down on his mouth preventing him from screaming.

Go and bite down, please, you know what my blood can do to you, The Praetorian said, and while he knew that while the human couldn't hear his hive speech, it wasn't going to stop him from talking to this little worm. His smile became more twisted and demonic as Steffen started to try and struggle against the ironclad vice-like grip. Yes, filth, struggle, try and break free, this is only the beginning, you will suffer, you will bleed and you will die, this is for what you did to my brother and all the others you hurt.

His hand moved up a few inches the Xeno clamped down even harder, Steffen found that he was now unable to breath, panic started to set in, all the time he had spent in the Xeno pens, laughing and mocking at their suffering and pain, everything that he had done to them, thinking that they were little more than dumb animals, his realization now came far too late. His eyes caught sight of the hole in the ceiling, right where the vent cover was supposed to be. Had it been there the whole time, listening to him, watching him, waiting for the right moment to strike, terror gripped his soul as an icy chill ran down his back as he now realized he was going to die, and not quickly either.

He tried to breathe, just a small bit of air, that's all he wanted, his chest ached, he tried so hard to suck in any air that he could, but nothing, as much as he could Steffen tried break free, hitting, pulling, his body thrashed around on the bed, screaming as loud as he could but to no use as his voice was muffled, in the end, nothing worked to free himself.

Hot pain ripped through his chest, his vision slowly faded as darkness close in. The last few seconds before darkness closed in, his eyes met the Praetorian, he saw the vague outline of the human skull through the semi-transparent dome, the eyeless sockets looking right down at him.

Steffen's body went limp, the human's heart was racing wildly and suddenly started to slow down, removing his hand, the human sucked in air, filling up his lungs. No, no, no, little filth, you don't get to die so easily and not so quickly, the Praetorian thought to himself tilting his head ever so slightly, thinking of what to do. The human would be out for a few little while, hopefully just long enough to get him ready for the last few minutes of his miserable existence. Looking over to the hole in the ceiling an idea came to mind, while he could take the human and make him suffer for days...no even that was going too far, he wanted the human to be found, to send a message, and he knew now how to do it.

Grabbing the human's naked body and pulling the limp form out of the bed, along with a couple of sheets, it was time to get started, while he didn't have much time, he figured it should be enough.

xxxxx

Slowly opening his eyes Steffen wasn't sure if he had just had the worst nightmare possible, at least he hoped that's all it had been, the last thing he remembered was looking right into the dome of a Xeno, and not just any Xenomorph but the large Praetorian, it had its hand clamped over his face, not letting him breath, the only thing he remembered beyond that was pain and darkness and that was it.

He mentally chuckled to himself, there was no way it had been real, only a messed up nightmare, something from the previous day, only something was wrong, very wrong, he wasn't in bed, his head shot up and he looked around, he was still in his quarters, but he was restrained, tied up, hanging from the ceiling.

Looking right up, cloth bindings secured his hands together and formed a makeshift rope that looped over some pipes from the vent opening in the ceiling, not only that a tan substance covered the cloth and his hands. Immediately he recognized the substance, it was resin, Xeno resin, he went to yell but found that his mouth too was gagged; cloth and warm wet resin mixed together gaging his mouth shut. Looking around he found that his legs were spread apart and his feet up to his shins were encased in hard resin securing him to the floor, unable to move.

Turing his head as much as he could to look around, he didn't see the Xeno, maybe it was gone, maybe it had left him, maybe this was just a warning of some sort, if he got out of this he was going to find some way off this station and not look back. His mind still wasn't able to fully grip was had just happened, what he had witnessed and experienced, he had thought that the aliens were nothing more than dumb, mindless animals, running off of nothing more than raw animalistic instinct. This, however, was a slap in the face to everything that he knew. What had happened, what was happening, this wasn't the act of some mindless animal this was the act of a higher, intelligent creature and one that might very well be out for blood.

His mind started racing, going back over every act that he had commented against them, the tests, tortures, the one drone that he had had his way with so many times, the very first time he had gone through with that act, gassing the drone, transporting it down to a solitary area where only the two of them would be, restraining the helpless drone so it couldn't move, there had been such a heightened anticipation of what was to come, he had removed his clothing, kneeled behind the Xeno, that first time his heart had been racing, it was a taboo act at best, but a part of him wanted...needed to do this. He had rammed himself in, the tightness, the warmth, he repeatedly climaxing inside of the restrained drone over and over, gods it had been so wonderful, the feeling the power, of sheer bliss of it all, listening to that stupid alien howl in pain, screeching, screaming, trying everything to break free, finally giving up and only whimpering. It only made him want to fuck the creature even more, one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe and he was now making one of them his own personal fuck toy.

Steffens snapped out of this past thoughts as a low menacing hiss came from behind, warm breath washed over his shoulder, he turned his head to the left only to see the deadly toothed tongue right next to his face, pasty white, with thick saliva caked to it dripping off in globs. Reactively jerking away or trying to, he could only move so far as he was restrained. He heard a repeated shuddering hiss, for a moment, it almost sounded like, laugher, no that couldn't right, could it.

The looming, black skeletal figure walked in front of him, its tongue slowly retracted back into its mouth, saliva dripping off, clinging to the Xeno's chin then falling to the floor. Its lips were peeled back in full aggression, leaning forward, he found himself staring right into the toothed dome, just inches away, its mouth opened all the way and another low menacing hiss came out.

"Please, god no, please, please, please, doesn't do this, please." Steffen tried to beg; plead, but only muffled cries came out from the gag and nothing more.

Please, no, have mercy, don't do this. Is that what you are saying little filth, hmmm, did my own brother not ask you the same, begged, pleaded, cried out for you to stop, and what did you do, rape and fuck him,you laughed at him and you mock him, you showed no mercy or remorse to him at all. Do not expect me to show you any in return. I know you cannot understand what I am saying, you cannot hear our language, but you do know what is going to happen, you know you are going to die, you just don't know how. The large Praetorian did regret that the human could not understand him in these final few moments, there would have been a great deal of satisfaction seeing the expression in his eyes of shock and disbelief knowing that what they considered a stupid and dumb animal was in fact far more intelligent than what they could ever realize. Bringing his hand up just below his own mouth, he extended his index finger up and placed in right on his lips, giving the human the "shush" sign, something he had seen many time before.

The black and deadly tail blade came around, snaking and coiling up like a serpent, Steffen' eyes grew wide as the color in his face turned a stark white. The blade made its way between and up the Praetorian's legs stopping at the groin and pointing right at him, slightly bobbing up and down, a deadly, phallic instrument ready to make its claim of human flesh. A slew of muffled cries erupted, cries for mercy for him not to do this, mercy for the Xeno to stop, fear took grip loosening up his bladder, as warm, yellow piss streamed out of him and pooled on the floor beneath.

Disgusting, the Xeno sneered at the lost of the human's bodily functions, now you realize what is to come, you penetrated my brother, now I penetrate you.

Steffen's breathing quickened, as the Bladed tipped tail, slowly started to worm it's way toward him, reaching between his legs, the tail tip's edge rubbed up against his privates, sending him into a hysterical fit, tears ran down his face and he was close to hyperventilating. He looked up at the Xeno, looking right at the eyeless dome, even gagged he continued to beg, asked for mercy, pitiful sobs and high pitched whines escaped from him.

Perhaps, if it had been anyone else, he might have spared them or given them a quick death, but this one, this piece of filth, garbage, no, there would be no mercy, he had taken such pleasure in hurting his brothers and sisters, tormenting them, in any way he could, in that regard he was worse than Mason, at least with Mason, the man he did not feel, there was a reason to his madness an understanding to the way he was, but this human, no, he knew what he had done was wrong, sadistic, even evil, and he enjoyed it. While the Praetorian did not take much in the way of personal pleasure in doing this, satisfaction yes, but pleasure no, it was something that needed to be done.

Closing his eyes tightly, long sobs wracked him as he knew what was going to happen, he didn't see the tail blade point up, he didn't want to see it slowly inching its way toward his rectum, only when the blade came into contact with and slid between his checks the tip poking into his opening did he fully loose what little composure he had been holding onto. Screaming whatever he could, he prayed that this was just a bad dream, a nightmare that he was going to wake from any second, he prayed to whatever might be out there not to let him die like this, that he was sorry for all that he had done and he would be better, all he wanted to do was live and not be mutilated like this.

Whatever prayers he might have offered were met on deaf ears, the blade thrust up a couple of inches slicing into Steffen's anus, splitting it open. Howls of muffled agony ripped out of his lungs, his eyes teared up and started to become bloodshot, as his body jerked and spazzamed trying to escape the tight confines to get away from the agonizing black probe that was now inside him.

Pulling the blade out an inch, he waited for a few seconds, then with a second thrust he plunged it deeper into the human's body. More wails of pain, followed by choked sobs followed, he began to piston his tail blade, pulling out and then ramming in faster and deeper, going in an inch or two further with each thrust, cutting open his sphincter wider and wider each time, shredding the human's insides to bloody ribbons. Dark red blood gushed out, coating the floor, his gaze lock on the human, he could tell that Steffen was close to death, his heart rate was dropping and he was no longer screaming, he had not passed out just yet, but his eyes were dull and almost seemed to be sunken in.

Pity taking hold he decided to finally end it, pushing his tail blade deep inside Steffens body; the human jerked once and then finally went limp and lifeless. Pulling his tail blade out, blood combined with excrement poured out of the gaping cavity mixing with the human's piss from earlier as it pooled out and coved the floor in a vile mess, the lifeless corpse slowly swung back and forth ever so slightly, dull, lifeless eyes staring into nothing as small tricks of blood continued to run down from his nostrils.

While vengeance had been served, a part of him now wondered if he had crossed a line, that maybe he should not have gone as far as he had, maybe he should have just killed the human outright and been done with it. Regardless, however, this would send a strong message to those that had commented harm against his race and what would now happen to them all, he cleaned his tail off, wiping the blood and shit off on the bed sheets, now he needed to get back to his temporary hiding place and see if Ryan was still asleep and how he was doing, with a swift and effortless jump he disappeared back into the vents and was gone.