I was no different when I first met Jennifer.
As for my side of the story on how we first met... Unlike Jennifer or many of the lackies (A impolite definition of someone who is not well prepared or ready for an unexpected event, in Kj's case it's combat and survival related) or even many of the Task Force guys themselves, personally or just in general. Everyone except for Spears and Massey of course. I'm pretty sure with the exception of them, maybe a few other hired guns, and God himself, no one actually expected something like this would happen. And I know what you're thinking, "Kj how could anybody expect something so sudden like this." and to that I say you prepare for whenever it decides to come while you can, and that's exactly what I did. Hell it's how I passed the time when I wasn't on another one of Weyland's suicide missions, sleeping, smoking, or training
There's a good reason why I choose to focus myself on readiness when I wasn't an emotional train wreck.
"Be prepared," that's the Boy Scouts of America motto. if you didn't know. Something that you Oomans used to teach your male infants, it used to teach things like basic navigation and survival techniques. Started all the way back in the early 20th. And there motto ",Be Prepared," is one of the best mottos any organization could live by. It's short, sweet simple, and gives a wise message that is to the fcking point. Merciful Master Jesus, I love that motto. Perfect I tell you, absolutely perfect.
"Could you elaborate?"He looks at me funnily. He doesn't understand my question."How did you prepare?"Oh, well like I said before I did physical training everyday for at least an hour, missions included. I did weapon modifications whenever my imagination would come up with something, I would also clean and check for repairs after every mission to make sure they were all in perfect condition when I needed to use them, I practiced with them on a semi daily basis, that was to make sure nothing was wrong, and I also took the initiative to store guns, and ammo caches in areas of convenience. I mostly did that at night when the facility was most inactive, especially when the Operatives were asleep enjoying the colonies' night life, that way none of them could spy on me. Although I should mention I wasn't always able to get the job done alot of times, sometimes I didn't even start. I had to worry about tripping sensors, or looking out for watching cameras. I'm not a very technically knowledged individual, so I just had to avoid those road blocks whenever and wherever possible. It's also amazing how there's always at least just one person still awake in any room of this facility that can catch you if you're not careful.
"Were you ever caught?"Spears got me one time. I wasn't embarrassed, nor was I scared. I have had people barge in while I was...
He makes a masturbatory motion with hir right hand.Yeah I forgot to mention, that's another thing I did to pass the time, especially whenever I was feeling lonely or depressed.
He shrugs."What happened after he caught you."We had a brief chat, I told him he'd caught me doing something Weyland might have not have found appropriate, but to my suprise he didn't rat me out. I gotta admit the man is at his best passive. I never knew why he did that though, but I sure as hell am appreciative of it.
Most of my primary weapons, like my machete, modified wristblades, ST, and A'rgr-lo's smart disc, I kept in the barracks underneath my bunk, with plenty ammunition, and napalm for the wristblades.
I had just gotten back from a mission a couple days ago, wasn't anything big, barely even had to fire a shot outta ST here...
He pats the rifle as it lies on the table.and all I really needed to do was clean my machete and the wristblades. I should also mention I lost one of the gauntlets a couple years before saving a dumbass operative. He still owes me that one. I was still doing good with just the one, and my trusty machete so I didn't fuss to much about it. I was sharpening the blade on my machete when the alarm went off. Everybody immediately dropped what they were doing and went straight for their equipment, as did I. Spears was away at the time, and left Massey in charge. After each of us had our gear on, me and the rest of my "bunk mates" were directed by Massey over the intercom, telling us to group up in the lab area. No doubt some of the shadows would enter through there in their attempt to escape. It wasn't of course until after we'd gotten there that the alarm changed in to a "red alert." Category 5 outbreak. That meant one thing, the queen had escaped.
Most of the Task Force guys began turning white after they heard that cheerful bit of news come over the intercom. Massey arrived shortly after and gave us one of his run down speeches, telling us news we already knew, and following it up with, or at least what I called a "kiss your ass goodbye speech." It was meant to sort of pump the guys up, get em ready for the fight. Hadrick had given many of those kinds of speechs himself, although he was better at is since he knew when to piss around the bush and when not to, because just seconds later a small pack of shadows came bursting in. Massey and I took em down though.
Suddenly a voice came over our earpieces. Another group of operatives, some noobs that had been transfered to us recently were pinned down by a horde of them. While I don't care for the Task Force, I do have a soft area for the inexperienced runts, and I went to help em out. Massey tried forcing me to stay with the group in the lab, saying "we" had strict orders from Weyland to gaurd any and all exits accessible to the queen. I didn't listen to a word of his bs about following orders, and continued forward. I passed one of my caches on the way by, which had a backpack full of extra ammo, rations and a homemade plasma caster. It also had some extra armor, a bio-mask, net mesh, in case I needed to repair my armor, and a backup SW 4506, with plenty of ammo to go with it. I normally traveled light on weapons and ammo, but my six sense was telling me I'd need every bit of it.
I found three of the remaining noobs on the second story lab area, where the testing chambers were. The noobs were up against a wall with a swarm of bugs pinning them down. I charged into the swarm unsheathing my machete as I did, and began laying waste to the horde. Bits and pieces of black matter and acidic entrails splattered all over the place as I dismembered, decapitated, and even sliced them in half.
He reveals the xeno-bone laminated blade from the sheath on his pants waistline area. The blade is about as long as a sword, which makes sense given his size.
The thing is way easier to use than a combi-stick, since you can weild it with only one hand, it's got a saw blade on it, perfect for sawing wood, and I can't lose it or break it. Thing's made by Kabar, and damn if they don't make state of the art quality blades. Can even cut through wood, and thin cement material. Beautiful piece of work, absolutely beautiful. Jason made an excellent choice when it came to bladed weapons, cause this thing kicks ass!
Of course I also got slashed back, because let's be real no one is gonna just win a fight with any bladed object, and get out unscathed that just doesn't happen, especially when it's one Yatja vs an ass ton of xenos. But I still won. After a moment of hacking and slashing, the bugs began to retreat. Mommy was calling, and loyal as they were to her, they obediently followed. I threw my blade at one of the last retreating shadows and managed to hit it in the side. It tried crawling away, but just like in the Friday the 13th series, that never works. I ripped the blade out of it's side and made a vertical strike to it's skull.
I told the noobs to regroup with Massey and his team down at the first floor research area, they'd need the help in case the queen decided to make a detour there. I continued bouncing around the facility slashing any shadow I saw. Unfortunately the queen escaped, thankfully though most of her subjects would follow. She wasn't worried about destroying the facility and taking it over, all she wanted was to get out. She knew that even if she could do that,this place was to important to the Oomans, and soldiers more would come before she even had it taken over. Massey was cursing me through my earpiece telling me to regroup with him. I'll be a little honest, maybe I should've regrouped with him and the noobs rather than go running off on my own, since it was he and his team who tried to stop the queen and failed, but hey karma.
Of course since she's a btch I didn't end up walking away from this one free myself. I could've done something to stop it and hadn't so that meant I'd need to follow after it. This was not good because if she was allowed to propagate again, without any competition the planet would be screwed, fortunately though, the queen had a tracker on her, and although it would take days to snatch, or kill her, reinforcements would come. I'd just follow after her and make the job easier. Another good thing was that their were no holes big enough, at least that we knew of where the queen could just crawl into. It would take time for her to build another nest, and many of her workers, and warriors were dead now. Time was the one thing she did not have, and right now she was only worried about making it far enough away.
Unfortunately, in my infinite wisdom, I did not grab a tracker on my way outside the facility, but then again I didn't know how to use one, and I also didn't need it. I'm a good enough tracker, not exactly an expert, but I'd tracked shadows before. At most it'd just be time consuming. Although that didn't mean I could just meander about. Thankfully though my bio-mask could detect any tracks they left behind temporarily, which made my job somewhat easier. At least it would have been had I not gotten side tracked, by a well... a welcome distraction.
"Jennifer Weyland."Yep. At first I thought she was a xenomorph but as I switched through through the vision modes, I saw it emitted a heat signature. Xenomorphs don't give of any external body heat at all. So either this was something brand new, or this was Weyland's daughter. I activated my cloaking camoflauge, one of the few times I ever did, since a xenomorph can detect my pheromones, and gave chase. She was being chased by a shadow. As I got closer, I could see her outline on the thermal imagery was different to that of a xenomorphs. She looked just like she had before except, older, more matured, and honestly pretty cute. I saw her fall over, exhausted from all the running. She stood there scared, and defenseless, I could've let it happen. I could've let the shadow take her, let Weyland fell the same kind of pain I felt after what he did to me at Crimer's Ridge, let him know that even though I didn't do it, I did nothing to stop it either
But also it wasn't her fault for what he did. She didn't know any better. I did the compassionate thing. I lined my bio-mask's targeting system up on the shadow, waited until it said I was locked on, then discharged a blast from my plasma caster. my aim was on point and the blue fireball of energy caused the bug to combust into pieces.
I then turned my attention to Jennifer, I turned the normal vision mode on and I could see her properly, for some reason she was in her undies. I wouldn't ask, and try to ignore it. She was beautiful, it wasn't exactly love at first sight, but she was a attractive specimen, especially since she was part shadow. Just like in the photo I saw of her years before, she had long orange hair, dark gray skin, and violet eyes. Before she was just a child ,though, But now...
She just stood there speechless, I could tell she was scared, but at the same time though she felt safe. She'd just seen a hulking, terrifying humanoid come out of nowhere and save her. What could she have thought I guess. Another three xenos showed up out of nowhere and went straight after her. I was suprised they didn't notice me. I kicked one of them as it tried to pounce on her, and I quickly dispatched another driving the old JV into it. I quickly took care of the one I kicked away, by decapitating it. I unknowingly walked through a small puddle of water, which caused my cloak to malfunction. The last shadow definitely had seen me then. It pounced at me but I dodged and swung my machete cutting the creature in half from it's torso. I returned my attention to Jennifer, who after a moment of silence began to run away. I followed after her. I'd just went through the trouble of saving her, I wasn't going to let herself get killed. Naturally she got lost and ended up knocking herself unconscious on a rock.
Kj slaps his forehead.
You could pretty much tell what I was thinking. I remembered I still had a job to do, but my initiative self compelled me not to leave her. So I ended up bringing her with me. I followed the xenomorphs tracks as far as I could until it began to get dark. I found a nice spot to set up camp and I did so. The backpacks are set up with standard camping equipment on them, tent, sleeping bags, even an inflatable pillow. Made things pretty quick to set up, and certainly came in handy since Jenny was with me. She could have the tent if she wanted, and I'd take a comfortable boulder. I didn't mind really. Was much better than laying down on the soggy ground. I like it like that.
An alarm goes off suddenly followed by an emergency recording on the intercom saying that one of the colonies has reported xenomorph activity. Kj leaves, quickly telling me goodbye, before vanishing with his machete and his rifle.