Jennifer's Diary

June 8, 2621.

The day we would take Cardona Valley had come upon us, and I was shaking. My adrenaline was pumping through me making me the most nervous, and excited I'd ever felt, and we hadn't even finished packing up yet. We'd been here for a total of two months working on this, planning everything out; there was no way either of us were bugging out of this fight. Besides I'd just gotten Jon to open up to me. I certainly wasn't going to leave him behind. He really is a handsome person.

We packed all of our weapons, ammunition, food, camping gear, and explosives into the ACP Jon had refurbished for the fight, reinforcing it with extra armored platting. He literally had to drive the whole thing through the wall since the garage door was caved in, which I could understand, because we weren't getting it out any other way.

Before we left though we had to do one last thing. Jon invited me to say a prayer for us, which I humbly did, thanking the Lord for keeping us safe as he had, and allowing me to find Him, and especially for allowing me and Jon to meet each other. I continued asking he'd help us to stay safe during the fight, and that our training, and his guidance would keep us well within the battle, and that none of the Xenomorphs survive. I ended with a shaken, but respectful, and faithful Amen. I felt a wave of comfort and relief fall over me. I felt my adrenaline slow down but not completely, I was more confident, I felt strengthened. I was wondered if Jon felt the sake thing.

Jon gave me a warm and confident smile. I could see it held no pride on it. It was comforting. "We'll be fine ,Jenny." He said resting his arm on my shoulder. I gave him a hug which he accepted warmly, vibrating his mandibles in an almost purring manner.

"That's enough of that for now. C'mon We've got work to do." I could tell he didn't want to do this but it was time we were serious. I gave him an affirmative nod, before puting on elongated bio-helmet. Yes that's what it was since it didn't just cover my face, but most of my surrounding cranium. Jon followed with the same motion. I gave the grounds one last glance before we rode up the valley's main pass.

I kept my fingers curled around the hand grip of my M41A, checking periodically to make sure I had the safety on or the mag loaded, or my finger off the trigger. Jon could sense my paranoia. "Hey ,Jenny, calm yourself down some. We're not in the hell fields yet. Just relax yourself some."

"Why should I? I thought it was good to be alert?" I asked.

"That's true but you tense yourself up before the fight happens, you get all these quivers and stuff. I've seen it happen before to a couple guys they couldn't keep their crap together and they lost it. You only be alert when you know you need to be." He explained."Well, what can we do ,Jon?" I asked him. Jon pressed a button on the side of his mask where his iPhone was mounted. The little defise began to play Elektronomia. I found a rythm to the beat, and while it didn't completely distract me from the task ahead of me. I felt calmer. A series of other EDM, and 1980s songs played, like Summer of 69, Don't Stop Believing, and Living on a Prayer. I didn't know anybody still liked that era given how long it had been. Although given what I heard from Jon's iPhone, I guess I should've also expected that answer to be self evident. Jon had some fun rocking his head back and forth slightly to the music. Jon also happened to find a pack of forgotten cigarettes in the APC and that made him happy, but he was still controled. I actually didn't know he smoked until then.

We made it into the pass without any opposition and drove deeper into the entry way which if you looked at it was like a small canyon. We came across some resin, which was splattered haphazardly on the ground and around the canyon walls. The stuff became more concentrated as we went deeper, and came out through the pass. Jon turned the iPhone off, and told me to go in the back and see it everything was ready. I did so and made sure all of our magazines were fulled, that our ammunition was where it needed, and that my armor was on properly. I also made sure to check the energy in my wristbracer. I could see us approaching the jungle that had grown over the crater. It wasn't massive really especially for what it was, but it was very big. It looked beautiful but I knew deep inside it was crawling with hundreds if not thousands of xenomorphs. The fact that we hadn't seen at least one yet was making me nervous. Jon had explained that this was a tactic he'd seen the creatures use before on many occasions. He reminded me to never underestimate my opponent, as that is a deadly weakness. I would not learn that lesson the hard way I though intently to myself. We also checked our hearing protection before we began since we knew we were going to need them for the amount of ammunition we were going to chew through.

A few moments after we reached the canopy floor all hell began to break loose. We exploded out of the APC fire arms in hand. Jon was carrying the M56 Smartgun in both hands, while I had my M41A locked and loaded. Jon ordered me to sight my targets, I did. Then with a commanding "FIRE!" we proceeded to lay utter waste to the oncoming swarm. The whole thing was a rush. We spent mag after mag after mag, we lobbed grenades, tossed explosives, we not just tore the xenomorphs themselves to pieces but the jungle itself. Tree branches turned to splinters, leaves exploded to confetti, and the whole trees came down. The xenomorphs themselves were being destroyed, and I mean that litteraly, their whole bodies just exploded in this barrage of hell fire. Limbs flew, pieces of exoskeleton shot sky high, and their acid blood began to sizzle forming this greenish vapor cloud below the hoard. Each time we ran out of ammo on a mag we would cover each other for a quick second to reload really quickly and then be back in the fight. The callus on my hands which I'd formed during the last two months training split as I constantly moved in this robotic fashion of shot, reload, and repeat. Occasionally we had to make a strategic retreat to another area so we could reload, and avoid being overwhelmed.

Eventually though almost all of our ammunition ran dry and we had to resorted to our melee weapons. We still had a couple hundred of the creatures left to face. Jon showed no fear and neither did I. We charged into the mass and hacked, sliced, slashed, and chopped everything around us. My armor protected me well against the acid, and Jon's inhansments made me calm, at least knowing he was unaffected by the acid.

The fight suddenly ended when one of the creatures, a warrior stopped, turned his head innthe other direction, and sent out a shrill scream that caught most of the others attentions. Those that had responded to the call then fleed back to the center. Something had happened.

"What's going on?! Why are they retreating?!" I asked as I used my combi-stick to impale a shadow through the chest.

"I don't know! I've never seen them do that!" He said confused as he also fought off his swarm with his machete and smart disc

.At the end of the fight I got to see Jon's more protective, yet ferocious side. Two xenomorphs I hadn't noticed were about to nail me before I could react in time to defend myself. Jon charged forward and pushed me away. The three of them grappled for a moment, before Jon threw them off. He grabbed one of them by the tail, and swung it into the other. He then pulled it towards him and they began beating and clawing each other. "YOU DO NOT TOUCH HER!" I heard him say as he threw his fists down at the creature. The xenomorph only managed to claw his mask off, and scrape him a bit, before it was quickly overpowered, and couldn't continue to swing. Jon did not let up though. He was furious, cursing, spitting, roaring, as he continued to beat the creature into a acidic pulp with his own two hands. Obviously the creature attacking me had triggered him, reminding him of what had happened to his mother and friends before, which I could confirm given some of the things I heard him sputter. Jon had grown to love me, and was now defending me with all of his rage filled strength. I could see his firey red eye focus on the dying beast in front of him as he uncontrollably smashed the creature's brains in.

His eyes then focused in my direction. His eyes were locked, his back was arched, his mandibles flaring in aggression. He charged at me. I thought he thought I was a xenomorph for a moment and began to panic as he launched himself at me. He dove past me and grabbed ahold of the other alien, that had tried to sneak around and stealth kill me. Jon held the monster up against a tree by the throat. The creature shot it's tongue at him several times aiming at his head, but each shot fell to short. Jon kept his facial expression locked on the creature. as it continued to bite and snap at him. I saw the creature's tail move around about to impale him from behind. I thought he hadn't noticed, since he was so focused on the creature and was about to scream a warning, but I didn't need to. He moved his left hand and caught the tail by the base of the sharp tip. He looked at the tail with his opened mandibled face before returing his gaze towards the xenomorph. The thing was now whinning weak elephant screams, and it began to stop clawing away at his arm. Jon continued to breath heavily as his grip on the creature's throat intensified until I heard it crush in his fist. The creature fell limp. After that he picked the thing up, and as hard as he could, he swung the monster by the tail into a tree hard. I heard bones splinter as he did it. He loudly roared down at the creature with all of the strength he could exert from his lungs.

His clawed fists were curled in, and leaking his glowing blood. His powerful chest rose and fell heavily with every rasping breath he took. His look of hate still locked on the creature.

"Jon?" I called to him. "Jon?" I repeated touching his shoulder. He made a hiss as he sharply turn to face me. His look of rage and fury fell as he saw the concerned look on my face.

"I'm sorry about that Jenny. I didn't mean to direct any of that at you." He apologized as he panted heavily.

"It's alright Jon. I understand. Thank-you for saving me again." I said putting my hands on his shoulder and left arm. The tension in his muscles began to ease and he sat down to rest. He was exhausted from expending so much of his energy.

"I wasn't going to let it happen again... I'm never going to let it happen to anybody else. Especially not to you Jenny." He gasped his vow, as he took hold of my right hand softly.

"Thank-you Jon." I said smiling as I rested my head on his shoulder.

"You're welcome," He breathed. "Damn that was a work-out."

"I'll say. Let's not rest for very long though. Somethings up with them, and I don't think any of it is good." I suggested.

"Yes. That sounds like a very good idea." Jon said getting up.

We retrieved our weapons and reloaded what little ammunition we had into our mags, and left everything else benind. The canopy had become dead silent. Neither me nor Jon could hear or see anything. We cautiously moved deeper and deeper into the valley, occasionally checking our surroundings for any signs of the creatures. After a few moments that felt like hours, Jon and I stood there confused by the development. The xenomorphs were gone. Jon had assumed that the queen had sensed danger and was retreating through the pass. We drove back to the canyon and found that this was not the case. We both ended up asking ourselves wnere they all went off to. Jon and I pulled up satellite readings on my wristbracer and discovered the signal had vanished. We were dumbfounded. "How the hell could they just vanish into thin air like that?" Jon asked himself.We sat there stupidly for a few moments before I found something.

There was smoke rising over the treeline. I put my helmet on and zoomed in on it."Jon look over there! Look zoom in on it!" I pointed it out to Jon. He saw it too.Jon was both confused and a little worried at the same time.

"A fire? but that makes no sense- Unless." He said his look of confusion deepened into that of worry. I could tell by the way his eyes widened and the way his mandibles began to spread he was getting nervous.

We weren't felling comfortable about it, but we decided we should investigate."What do you think it is ,Jon?" I asked him nervously through my helmet.

"I'm not sure. I'm just praying to God and the Merciful Master Jesus that this isn't what I think it is." He told me in a worried tone.

Before we could talk about the subject anymore, Jon sensed something was amiss, and held his arm out for me to stop. We scanned our surroundings carfully. I was terrified, as was Jon, but I could tell he wasn't scared for himself.

Suddenly a red laser like line cut through the jungle and caught me by my feet. Another caught me pinning my arms to my sides. They began pulling me into the jungle with startling speed and strength. "Jon!" I cried as I was dragged away.

"Jenny!" He screamed reaching for me. He managed to grap ahold of me and began to pull me back. Whatever was pulling me wanted me badly as it didn't let go. Jon however fought back and used all of the gentle force he could to keep me from moving forward, while also trying not to hurt me. He cursed as he tried to rip me from whatever was carrying me away. I tried to help by cuting at the lines with my tail, but they were made of a strong material.

Another three lines came out of the jungle, only these were targeting lasers. The three small dots lined themselves up on Jon's chest. We both saw it but we were to slow to react in time. The plasma blast came with a loud zap and flew towards Jon. The blast hit him dead center and he flew back hitting a tree before limply falling to the ground.

"JON! NO!" I screamed again realizing what had happened. That had to have been a focused blast. Thankfully I saw no green blood oozing from his torso, but it was enough to knock him out. I didn't know what else it did to him since I was wrapped in another lasso and pulled away. "JOOOOOON!" I screamed for him as I looked back at his unconscious body.

"Let me go!" Yes I litteraly was stupid enough to tell whoever was kidnapping me to let me go. My demands were not met with any answers. I remember feeling this needle go into by arm before quickly passing out. Before I did I could see the masked faces of the ones who'd attacked. They were Yautja.

Okay so now I'm done with another chapter this one didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would have. You can pretty. uch tell what else is going to happen later on in the story, and where Ch'ris- and Rachelle might play into the story. I'll try to make some more progress while I can, but I'm not going to be very active tomorrow because it's Christmas. Also thank you NeverNeverGirl for the frequent comments they are helping me to stat interested and motivated on getting this done quicker please keep sending them. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.