Alien 3 is owned by Disney/20th Century Studios.
Novelization owned by Alan Dean Foster and Titan Books.
Original characters are owned by me.
Beta'd by AlphaLima1980
Gamma'd by DarthTenebrus
Alien 3: Not Alone
Chapter 12: When Worlds Collide Pt. 2
The autumn night; cool, relaxing, and perhaps even sinister on certain nights, nights like this one.
The fallen leaves laid in organized piles, while the occasional jack-o-lantern and glow-in-the-dark skeleton ornaments partially illuminated the exterior of a nearby farmhouse.
It was Halloween night, a night filled with candy, adolescent pranks, and spooky decorations. Costumed children walked across the sidewalk, while others walked up the gravel driveway, eager to receive their numerous candy treats.
In the master bedroom on the second floor, one of the residents of the house lay on a large bed, wearing a white robe similar to what she had worn so many times before on countless journeys aboard several starships. Her curly brown hair was down to her shoulders, clean, neat and pristine.
A cold breeze came through the open window, waking the sleeping form of the former warrant officer. Her brown eyes opened, and after blinking a few times she jolted upward with a gasp. She didn't recognize the room but felt she had been there before. She sat on the edge of the bed and glanced over to the mirror in the corner before standing up and walking over to it.
Ellen Ripley didn't know whether or not to believe her eyes - she didn't look remotely close to the woman who had survived the hell of LV-426. The last thing she remembered was tucking Newt into her cryopod back on the Sulaco. Now she appeared to have been asleep for a long time for her hair to have grown longer.
Maybe something had happened on the way home. Maybe she was asleep, and this was all a dream.
She moved over to the windowsill and took in the cool autumn air. A slight breeze was felt on her face, and she took it in with closed eyes. She felt at that moment that perhaps this wasn't a dream, that perhaps they had made it home safe and sound. She looked out across the yard, spotting several children dressed in costumes walking up and down the driveway.
She heard knocking at the front door downstairs, but when she turned to walk out of the bedroom it appeared someone else answered the door for her, with a voice she hadn't heard in what felt like an eternity coming from downstairs.
"Trick or Treat!"
"Well looky here... great costumes." Ripley stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing the voice of her crewmate, her friend, and the man she held deep feelings for still.
"Let's see… we've got a marine, a doctor, and...what are you?" Andrew asked the children at his door.
"I'm an alien!" One of the children responded. Andrew remained silent for a moment.
"Oooh, scary...I wouldn't want to run into you on a late night. There you go guys, happy Halloween!" Mils said as Ripley heard the door close. She slowly moved into the hallway, her footsteps not making a sound as she moved towards the stairwell, and once there she heard an old movie coming from a nearby TV.
She walked down the stairs, turning towards the sound of the TV with fear, expectation, and nervousness. She heard Andrew grunt a little as he sat down on a couch, adjusting himself to make sure not to wake the person he was sharing the couch with.
"Andrew..." Ripley barely uttered, at seeing her friend sitting on the couch before her. She slowly walked towards the couch, fearful of how he would react to seeing her again after what they had endured on the Nostromo. He turned around and made eye contact with the tall brunette.
"Hey Rip...bought time you woke up," Mils said with a laugh. Ripley didn't say anything as she slowly approached him, unsure whether he was real or not.
"You already missed part of the marathon..." Mils said, referring to the TV; it was old in design, looking like something out of a 1950s household. Ripley decided to humor and test her friend's knowledge.
"Did I miss anything good?" She replied.
"Yeah, erm, IT! The Terror From Beyond just finished up. Next up is Forbidden Planet, and then THEM!" Mils stated, looking through the TV guide in his hand.
"Sorry. I guess I slept a while, huh?"
"Yeah, and you still look beautiful as always..." Mils responded with his trademark cowboy charm, the same that had melted Ellen's heart every time. She approached him with clear determination in her mind and affection in her heart. She placed a hand on his head and felt his brown hair against her fingertips. He was real.
She quickly embraced him, pulling him into a tight hug, gripping his head like it was the last thing she had to cling onto in the world.
"Erm...what's this for?" Mils said humorously, and she broke the hug and looked down at him with a huge smile on her face.
"Everything..." she said as she pulled herself down towards him, planting the most tender kiss on his lips. She had wanted to do that for so long, an eternity in reality.
After what felt like such, Mils broke the kiss.
"Rip...Ellen...I'm all for a little Halloween fun, but maybe we should get Newt into bed first." Mils stated, looking down to his right at the sleeping form of the young girl next to him.
"Newt? How is she? How do you know about...?" Ripley asked in disbelief. Mils had never met Newt, to her knowledge. He hadn't been on LV-426 with her, he hadn't had to go through that particular hell.
"She came back from the neighbor's place early. I think she's tuckered out pretty good..." Mils answered.
"Andrew...I..."
"I know, you're sorry that you couldn't go with her, you've been working your butt off all week… I figured you should rest."
"I've rested long enough...I want to..." Ripley began but was interrupted by a loud, thunderous, echoing voice that boomed a message from outside the house.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS! REPEAT! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS!
"What the hell is that?!" Ripley asked out loud, but Mils and Newt didn't notice... Mils just kept staring at Ripley.
Ripley herself looked toward Mils, and then down at herself; she suddenly realized she wasn't wearing her robe anymore but was wearing her Nostromo jumpsuit, which was covered in grime, ash, and blood.
"No...no..." She repeated as Mils suddenly clutched at his chest in intense pain.
"No! Andrew, talk to me! Look at me!" Ripley yelled as he fell on the floor, blood pouring from his mouth like a waterfall. His body shook and shuddered as he yelled in pain and intense agony, his face contorting in an almost identical look to Kane.
"No! NO! No, God, please don't..." Ripley yelled out her horror as she seized Mils' shoulders, trying to steady him; it was no use as, with a mighty roar of power and gore, a newborn chestburster tore its way out of Mils' ribcage. Ripley instinctively flung herself away in terror and scrambled backward, unable to tear her eyes away from the horrible spectacle, just as her ears were then penetrated by Newt's sudden screaming behind her, and she turned to look at the young girl who was awake and horrified at the sight before her.
Ripley noticed that she was now covered in Mils' blood, and she also wasn't in her Nostromo jumpsuit but was in the bloodstained outfit she had worn on LV-426, when she had gone down into the nest in the atmosphere processor to rescue Newt. The front door of the house swung open and a blinding red light filled the house, accompanied by the same blaring message.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS! REPEAT! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS!
As the newly hatched alien screeched in fury at the human before it, Ripley's protective instincts went into full gear as she grabbed Newt and ran full speed towards the red light, closing her eyes as she did so as everything went dark and silent.
...
Onboard the Sulaco, in the cryosection of the ship, the alarming warning continued to blare across the PA –
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS! REPEAT! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS!
Of the nine cryopods occupied, only five of them opened on a preprogrammed command, awakening CPL Mils, PFCs Stone and Hudson, Dr. Elizabeth Ripley, and Ellen Ripley. Ellen was the first to open her eyes as the others had just begun to stir. She sat up with speed and alacrity, her nightmare still fresh in her mind. She took a hard look around her, double-checking her surroundings for any immediate threats. Elizabeth coughed a few times due to the sudden awakening, and Hudson cursed up a storm.
"Aww man what the fuck... we just got down and we're back up again?"
"You said it Hud! That was a fast three weeks! Hey Chrissy, you awake?" Stone asked, groaning as she rubbed her white-blonde buzz cut and tried to wake herself up, motioning over to Mils who had just sat up in his adjacent cryochamber. Christopher woke up with a grunt, taking notice of the alarm and its message.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS! REPEAT! RED DELTA 404 CONFIRMED! ALL MARINES TO ACTION STATIONS!
"Red Delta four oh... Oh, fuck!" Christopher stated as he lunged out of his cryotube, his hypersleep-induced stupor forgotten as he moved as fast as his still-numb legs could allow to a button on a nearby wall panel, and he slammed his hand on it to disable the blaring alarm. His mind still fluttered with sleep, but his training took over as he moved back towards his family and friends.
"Something's not right...I know cryo, three weeks feels a lot worse than this," Elizabeth said, noticing then that only a few of the cryotubes had been activated, while at the same time pointing out that it hadn't felt that long since they were put into cryo.
"Ellen? Grandma, are you alright?" Christopher asked Ellen as she moved to sit at the edge of her chamber, and she looked up at him with a nervous nod. She also noticed that Newt's cryochamber hadn't been activated.
"I'm fine, but something's still very wrong," Ellen stated.
"Yeah, I know. Ash, Hudson! Rise and shine, we've got problems! Ellie, you okay?" Christopher asked, walking over to his sister.
"I guess. I mean, I'm not feeling hungover like I usually do after cryo, so there's that, and - wait, Newt?!" Elizabeth stated, quickly walking over to Newt's cryochamber while Ellen was already there trying frantically to activate it.
"It's not responding... Damn it! They won't cycle open! Any reason for that to happen?" Ellen asked, turning to her grandson with an urgent look to her countenance.
"Not off the top of my head..." Elizabeth responded as Hudson and Stone took notice of the same predicament with Vasquez's and Hicks's chambers.
"Hey look, man - Vas and Hicks! Their freezers are locked up tight! I'm locked out - I can't even get their consoles to turn on! Something's up for sure, Sparks!" he commented as he attempted and failed to type commands into Vasquez's console.
"I got a bad feeling in the pit of my gut, Hud, and it ain't the shitty cornbread," Stone replied as she clutched her stomach.
"Check all the chambers?" Christopher inquired, approaching Elizabeth and Ellen.
"Uh-huh, Newt's is in some kind of lockdown..." Elizabeth started.
"But that doesn't make sense...last we checked the ship was going back to Earth." Ellen finished.
"I hear ya, but there's something else..." Christopher was about to start but was interrupted by Hudson and Stone, who came jogging up to the trio.
"Chrissy, we got quite a few problems," Stone reluctantly reported, perhaps a little fearful of her paramour's reaction.
"Something's up with the freezers, they're not working at all man... they're locked up real fucking tight," Hudson indicated.
"Any ideas, Ellen?" Elizabeth asked.
"No...if we made it back to Earth, there wouldn't have been an alarm.." Ellen explained.
"Damn thing gave me a headache, I couldn't make out what it was..." Elizabeth uttered.
"Well, maybe the ship went into lockdown because of that big, badass bug! I mean maybe it thought it was still here or something?" Hudson suggested. "You know, maybe it was a sensor glitch or something?"
"Not really, cause this ship's sensors got backups that got backups. And let's not forget that YOU two shot its egg to shreds when you spotted it in the middle of the hangar bay!" Stone added, pointing directly at Elizabeth and Christopher.
"There's something else though... the alarm - it said something about a Red Delta 404." Christopher stated, and Stone and Hudson glanced at each other in worry.
"Oh, fuck me..." Stone stated in disgust.
"Later Ash..." Christopher said with a wink, which caused the young private to blush.
"Oh, get a room, you two!" Hudson said, shaking his head.
"Mind filling us in, Chrissy?" Elizabeth inquired, crossing her arms.
"A Red Delta 404 means someone or something tried to take control of the ship from the bridge..." Christopher explained.
"Man, and here I thought it meant the reactor was FUBAR..." Hudson pondered out loud.
"Nah, that's a Silver Lima 220, Hud. God, you must've slept through that part of boot camp!" Stone lamented.
"Look if that's the case, and someone is trying to hijack the ship..." Christopher continued, Elizabeth finished his theory for him.
"Then maybe the Company is coming to squash some pesky bugs..."
"Yeah..."
"Oh, hell, no! Look, if there are any bugs left that are gonna be squashed, we're gonna be the ones doing the squashing!" Stone said firmly.
"Oorah!" Hudson said from behind her.
"Well then, we need some weapons, because we know for sure the Company won't squash those things..." Ellen said, her brain already in motion; if the conflict was gonna arrive, she wanted to be ready.
"And we might wanna change - just a friendly suggestion..." Elizabeth said as she looked down at her corporate sleepwear.
"Sounds good to me! These panties aren't bulletproof, last I checked!" Stone added.
"What about the kid? Hicks, and Vas?" Hudson asked, lifting his thumb and pointing back towards his fellow marines.
"Plus there's Bishop," Elizabeth stated.
"My guess is the ship went into lockdown and shut down the cryochambers that had any wounded or kids in them. After all, we had to enter all that information in before...only makes sense the ship would remember who's who." Christopher explained.
"Right. Stay safe, baby..." Ellen said, resting her hand on Newt's cryopod.
"Alright people, let's move like we got a purpose," Christopher ordered as the group moved to the nearby armory and equipment lockers.
The marines quickly equipped their combat armor and helmets. The Ripley women, having no uniforms of their own, put on civilian jumpsuits and attached armor underneath their clothing like bulletproof vests and shin guards. They next grabbed their assigned weapons, with Hudson, Stone and Ellen acquiring pulse rifles while Elizabeth took her mother's shotgun and a spare submachine gun, leaving Christopher to grab an auto-shotgun and a pulse rifle.
"Haven't used one of these since basic, glad to have 'em on board. And I can't forget you either..." Mils stated, grabbing his father's revolver and clearing it before spinning it on his finger and placing it in his pistol holster.
"We ready to roll, Stretch?" Stone asked, walking up with Hudson.
"You know it. Sooner we get this done, sooner we get home," Christopher explained.
"You said it, man! Sooner we hose these fuckers, the sooner we get to drink this whole shitstorm away!" Hudson stated, charging the pulse rifle and chambering a round, ready to fire, or in his mind, ready to blast away who or whatever unauthorized joker was trying to board his ship.
"Then let's get going..." Stone said, standing on her tiptoes to give Mils a kiss on the lips.
"Dammit, Ash! Now I'm gonna be distracted," Christopher said, shaking his head in disbelief before looking over to his grandmother and sister, nodding at them both.
"Chris seems more focused than ever..." Elizabeth pointed out.
"He's got that determined stare, same as Andrew. I remember how he'd get when he set his mind to something, whether it be filing a report before we hit cryo or getting that damned alien off the Nostromo," Ellen added.
"He gets it from Mom, too! We Ripley women are very dedicated when it comes to getting shit done."
"I know," Ellen said with a smile as the two women followed Christopher and the other Marines past their weapons lockers and into the hangar, immediately noticing the damage and debris left over from their battle with the Queen Xenomorph.
"Man...feels like we were just here!" Christopher said, shaking his head.
"Well, we were here only a few hours ago..." Stone stated as Ellen and Elizabeth looked down at Bishop's severed torso and legs as they lay in a pool of white circulating fluid.
"We didn't really get a chance to clean up did we?" Elizabeth asked out loud.
"I think I was a little too tired to focus on anything else at the moment; when we get back I'm sure they'll get this ship repaired first thing."
"Well I'm sure they can repair Bishop too..."
"He turned out to be okay - better than ASH that's for sure," Ellen said as Hudson investigated the dropship that was still parked at the far side of the hangar. He moved inside quickly, pointing his pulse rifle inside the craft's cargo hold and cockpit. He exited after completing his sweep.
"We're all clear here, guys. Whoever's trying to steal our ship ain't touched Smart Ass," he reported as the group met back up in the center of the hangar.
"So? Any theories here, guys?" Christopher asked.
"Like I said before, Christopher, I think Weyland-Yutani finally caught up to us," Ellen explained, as the group moved towards the hallway leading to the bridge.
"It could also be pirates or raiders. They try hijacking ships all the time," Christopher responded.
"They'd be pretty fucking stupid to try and take our ship...plus they wouldn't all go to the bridge, they'd at least go to the hangars and engineering before trying to take parts off the dropship," Stone stated.
"Then my money's on mercs. Wey-Yu's known for hiring them," Elizabeth added. She had seen what private contractors Weyland-Yutani would hire - former criminals, miscreants, and undisciplined thugs in nearly every case.
"Those hired guns are dog meat, man - they're not trained to handle a squad of Colonial Marines on their own warship, never mind a full complement!" Hudson stated vehemently.
"Damn straight Hud, now let's get to the bridge!" Christopher stated as they moved up the stairwell leading to the bridge, arriving at the locked door.
"Shit...this is gonna be a problem." Stone cursed as Elizabeth stood next to her and tried the access panel.
"Yep, we're definitely locked out," Elizabeth stated as Hudson, Christopher and Ellen checked the other door.
"Hudson? Can you get through it?" Ellen asked.
"Leave it to me, man! I know all the tricks, like breaking into my old man's booze locker," Hudson retorted smugly as he pulled out his bypass tool, reflecting briefly that he never thought he'd have to use it on his own ship's access hatches.
"We might wanna split up, the three of us go in and secure the bridge?" Christopher suggested.
"Hey, what are we, chopped liver?" Elizabeth asked, as she raised an eyebrow.
"No, I'm just saying I'd rather the three of us with heavy armor go in first, if we take fire; you two could flank our targets." Christopher clarified.
"Alright, I don't like it but if it means we get to the bottom of this alive, all the better," Ellen stated as the two women headed off to get into position.
"Come on, baby. Open sesame…" Hudson soothed as the bridge's doors slowly began to activate and unlock. Ellen and Elizabeth took cover behind a stack of large crates near the opposite side as the Marines all looked at each other, mentally preparing themselves individually for any potential conflict.
"Short, controlled bursts, remember that. They'll probably use the control panels for cover, so watch your fire, cause I don't wanna jettison the cryopods or launch a nuke!" Christopher exclaimed.
"I'll go first…" Stone volunteered.
"I don't know..." Christopher began to protest, Stone meant more to him now more than ever, and her putting herself in harm's way wasn't exactly a plan he wanted to consider.
"Come on, Chrissy. After all, I'm short, the bullets will fly over my head and into the next guy…which of course will be the ultimate badass over here!" Stone said as she slapped Hudson on his chest armor.
"Well woopty fucking doo to me then. Good thing I'm indestructible," Hudson said with all the sarcasm he could muster.
"Let's just get in there!" Mils said as he gripped his pulse rifle tighter, snapping into a firing posture as the doors in front of them began to cycle open. Stone, Hudson and Mils stacked up alongside the wall, ready to charge into the bridge. The door then opened, and as a unit Christopher's team surged in and checked the bridge controls in front of them, while Hudson quickly moved to the primary control panel and deactivated the Red Delta 404's lockdown.
"Okay I'll have to reboot the system real quick - it shouldn't take long, a few minutes tops," Hudson stated as Mils and Stone checked the rest of the bridge.
"Maybe the ship made a mistake, she's not exactly brand new..." Stone added as they both lowered their weapons upon completing their sweep.
"Yeah maybe...though I'd hate to think we got woken up for nothing." Christopher responded, as suddenly the doors to the bridge closed. Christopher and Stone ran up to them quickly as Ellen and Elizabeth ran to the other side.
"What the hell? Chris! Chris!" Ellen yelled, banging on the door.
"Hudson?" Christopher asked out loud, as he and Stone turned away from the door.
"Relax man, SOP for a reboot, give me a few mikes," Hudson responded.
Just then, without warning Mils felt a familiar, metallic cold slowly made contact with the back of his neck; he hadn't even noticed someone else was in the room. Must've been hiding in one of the corners or maybe in a locker nearby?
"Don't move a muscle!" another voice stated, a deep, gravelly one...one that Christopher felt a sense of nostalgia about, but he remained stiff as Stone and Hudson pointed their weapons at the man who was now holding their squad leader up like a bank robber might hold up a bank teller.
The man in question had long brown hair that was showing signs of turning silver, he wore a deep blue jumpsuit that resembled denim in design, but most likely was faux-clothed composite. His steely gray eyes showed experience, and he was wielding a powerful sidearm, pressing it into the back of Christopher's neck.
"Drop your weapon! Drop it man, or we'll blow you away! You fuck with one of us, you fuck with the whole squad!" Hudson barked.
"Hud, not helping!" Christopher shouted as he held his free hand up in a form of surrender.
"You two better stay cool, or your friend's gonna have a new hole to smoke out of in his throat..." the man deadpanned.
"Too bad I don't smoke then..." Christopher stated with sarcasm, only to have the sidearm be pressed into his neck harder.
"Zip it, boy!"
"You even breathe on him wrong and I'll blast you into next week, motherfucker!" Stone threatened, gripping her pulse rifle tighter. The man seemed to notice something on Christopher's arm, and his eyes finally widened slightly at recognizing the emblem of the USCMC unit he was a part of, causing the man to ease down a little.
"You're Marines?" he asked.
"No we're the boy scouts of troop 320; yes, we're fucking Marines!" Christopher stated in frustration. The man retracted his sidearm, and Christopher, Hudson and Stone all seemed to cool down as well. Christopher, in particular, turned around to see his erstwhile captor.
"Sorry about that, kid... I can't take too many chances..." The man sheepishly admitted, looking a little embarrassed by his actions. Christopher didn't know why, but the man looked familiar to him.
"I can understand that we just got woken up..." He responded.
"Yeah, maybe a little jumpy." Stone added.
"Haven't even had any morning joe!" Hudson stated with a chuckle.
"I'm just glad you're not Weyland-Yutani!" the man stated.
This got all three Marines' attention. "Funny enough, we thought they were trying to take our ship. You got history with them or something?" Christopher asked.
"Yeah, you could say that...let's just say I'm a pretty pesky thorn that they wanna pluck outta their side," the man said with a laugh.
"Well, I like you already. Nice pistol, by the way - that thing could put a hole through our APC," Stone complimented.
"Thank you very much. I'm still adjusting to it, so hopefully I won't have to use it," he responded as he twirled the pistol and placed it into its holster.
This action made Stone and Christopher exchanged looks of intrigue; Stone remembered when Christopher did the same thing with his revolver before they embarked on their mission to LV-426, Christopher in particular feeling more and more nostalgia fill his mind and body.
Why did he feel he knew this man?
"We know that feeling... Hudson? Let's get that door open..." Christopher stated.
"I'm on it..."
"There's only three of you left?" The man asked,
"There's only five of us marines left, plus a couple of civvies we picked up along the way..." Stone stated.
"The other two members of our team are healing up in their pods. So, you mind telling us how you ended up on our ship?" Christopher asked.
"I'll start with my name, I guess. The story of how I got here is a little long to explain in one go..." he explained.
"Yeah, a name would help..." Stone stated with a smirk.
"It's Andrew...though most people called me by my last name... Mils." Andrew explained as the three Marines all looked at the man in front of them with widened eyes. Hudson and Stone looked between Christopher and Andrew; they had the same eyes, the same hair color, and were both tall, give or take a few inches between them.
Christopher himself looked at the man before him, the man who was in fact his grandfather, his grandfather that, like Ellen Ripley, was in his early thirties. He resembled his father in several ways, though his father kept his hair shorter, and Andrew's voice was gravelly like his father's during his later years.
"Mils? Holy shit..." Christopher pondered, while at the same time Andrew himself was starting to connect the dots inside of his head, but he had never expected to be surprised by the Marines' response.
Maybe they knew who he was?
"That name mean something to you folks?" Andrew asked, as it suddenly dawned on him that the Marine in front of him was in fact kinfolk of his.
"Well, yeah. Erm...how to put this? I'm your... grandson, Christopher," the young Marine answered.
"Shit, that explains the eyes, wasn't expecting my grandson to have a five-o-clock shadow..." Andrew stated as he offered his hand for his grandson to shake.
"And you look a little young to be called granddad..." Christopher responded, shaking his grandfather's hand vigorously.
"Sorry I took so long to wake up..." Andrew stated with a smirk.
"Well, you look pretty good for someone who just came out of a coma; how the hell are you here again?" Christopher asked.
"It's a long story. Mind introducing your pretty little friend?" Andrew asked, looking at Stone.
"Oh, this is Private First-Class Ashley Stone, though everybody calls her Sparks…she's also my, uh…." Christopher explained a little sheepishly, Stone answered for him.
"I'm his girlfriend…. glad to meet you Grandpa Mils. Now I know where he gets his looks from," she winked, wrapping an arm around Christopher.
"I can see that the old Mils charm hasn't worn out over the years," Andrew responded, returning the wink.
"The short-shit badass over there is Hudson…" Christopher stated, pointing to his squadmate.
"We're gonna need name tags at this rate, man - hope you're as much of a badass as Stretch!" Hudson said as he kept working on the console in front of him.
"Stretch?" Andrew asked.
"Well, I'm the tallest member of my squad, so our platoon sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant Apone, called me "Stretch", and the name stuck ever since." Christopher admitted.
"Well, it runs in the family, plus if your mom was tall like..." Andrew stated as he remembered one of the primary purposes of his mission.
"Ellen..."
"Grandma? Oh God, that's right; she doesn't know you're here, she's gonna flip..." Christopher said, shaking his head.
"So, she did make it? Thank God," Andrew said as he sighed in relief.
"Yeah, we've had a hell of a time bonding; believe me... Hudson, how we doing?" Christopher asked as Hudson finished the opening procedures for the door.
"We're all good, man – open sesame!" Hudson replied as he input the last commands into the console with a flourish.
The four-member team prepared themselves as the doors began to cycle open, and Andrew prepared himself for the moment of truth, the moment he was most worried about. He wasn't sure how Ellen was gonna react to seeing him again after all this time.
He breathed heavily as he moved over to the far side of the bridge, still perhaps out of anxiety, or maybe he wanted Christopher to handle the introduction.
Finally, after an eternity of turning mechanisms, the door finally opened with Ellen and Elizabeth Ripley entering quickly, the pair of women making eye contact with the Marines right away,
"Chris. Are we clear?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well, there weren't any Wey-Yu thugs, but we did find someone," Christopher said, as he looked over to his grandfather, acting as if on cue to come over to the group. Andrew walked over to the group, and Elizabeth didn't know who the man was that moment, but she felt a strange familiarity mixed with a sense of nostalgia.
Ellen was meanwhile scouting out the rest of the bridge with Hudson.
"No sign of anything else, Hudson?" she asked.
"Nope. Well, none except for Stretch Senior over there," Hudson joked. Ellen looked over to the group nearby, and her eyes popped nearly out of their sockets. She couldn't believe her eyes as the man she hadn't seen nor expected to see anytime soon was standing there with them. She wasn't entirely sure how he could be - last she checked, he was in a coma back on Gateway, though that was several weeks ago, and she was advised that he would be up sooner than later.
But how was he here? On the Sulaco?
Andrew didn't look over, he primarily kept his eyes on the younger Ripley. Elizabeth resembled Ellen in many different ways; they had the same curly hair, though hers was a slightly lighter shade of brown, and her eyes had that common characteristic of determination, and she of course was taller than most other women of her age.
"Umm...Ellie this is..." Christopher began to explain but was cut off by Ellen.
"Andrew..." She said as she approached her family members. Christopher stood aside as Ellen approached Andrew, dragging his sister away from the pair to let them have what amounted to them a long-awaited reunion.
"Chris? Is that really who I think it is?" Elizabeth whispered into her brother's ear.
"Yeah, figured I'd let them talk first..."
"How is he, you know, awake and, more importantly, here?"
"I don't know Ellie. But we'll found out soon enough."
Ellen Ripley stared at her former crewmember with disbelieving eyes. She didn't know if he was real or if this was all some twisted apparition, a mirage of something she desired more than anything at the moment. At length she decided to throw caution to the wind and test her theory.
Andrew, on the other hand, could hear and feel his heart pounding in his chest. He had waited for this moment for so long, asked for it in dreams and wishes – now here she was, Ellen Ripley in the flesh standing right before him.
"Ellen I..." He began, but she silenced him immediately.
"No...shh...you stay there, you stay right there, Andrew Mils," she repeated as he went stiff with tension. Maybe she was angry at him for taking so long to wake up. She pressed a firm hand to his chest as she closed her eyes, feeling his heartbeat fill her body as a smile cracked its way onto her mouth; one filled with pain, relief and honest affection.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed Andrew had placed his hand on top of hers; something he hadn't been able to do in literal decades.
"Andrew..." Ellen said as the two embraced in a firm hug. Decades of waiting had now evaporated and now they could pick up from where they left off in many ways. The Marines and the younger Ripley just looked on and smiled.
"Sorry I was so late..." Andrew stated as Ellen laughed to herself, breaking the embrace to hold Andrew's face with her hands.
"Better late than never, you stupid hero," Ellen said as she pulled him into a firm, loving kiss that began to intensify. This time the twins looked on with raised eyebrows.
"I umm...guess they had something going on before?" Christopher asked out loud.
"Yeah, Ellen, um, mentioned something about them not really getting a chance to continue what they had on the Nostromo, so I'd consider this a continuance," replied Elizabeth.
"Well...I think we better stop them before their more basic instincts take over," Christopher admitted.
Ellen and Andrew continued to kiss in a truly loving, yet equally lustful manner. Only when Christopher cleared his throat did the pair stop their decades-long postponed embrace and look towards their grandchildren and the pair of Marines.
"Umm...not to interrupt...but..." Elizabeth said sheepishly. Ellen and Andrew looked at each other and exchanged smiles and even a few short laughs.
"Sorry about that... I guess we got a little ahead of ourselves," Ellen shrugged as she and Andrew walked over to the group.
"Yeah, been waiting a while to do that, sorry if we grossed you out. So you must be Doctor Elizabeth Ripley herself," Andrew presumed. Elizabeth blushed a little, smiling shyly at her grandfather's use of her official title, but nonetheless nodded her head.
"Yep, but most people call me Ellie. Glad to see you walking around again, Granddad," Elizabeth smiled.
"Alright Ellie...no offense, but I think I'm a little young to be called Grandad, give it a few more decades and then we'll talk - Andrew is fine for now." Andrew stated.
"So, Andrew...how are you here? I mean who sent you?" Ellen asked.
"It's a long story but, I'll give you the quick version. About a couple weeks ago I woke up from my little coma, ended up meeting with a couple of suits belonging to the UEC - "
"UEC? They're getting involved in all this?" Elizabeth asked.
"They hired me to keep tabs on Weyland-Yutani, so they could find out what they were doing about me and Ellen. If anything, Weyland-Yutani was watching though, they sent a rep named Cavender; she knew your parents, supposedly," Andrew continued, looking at the twins.
"She said that they were sending a rescue team to help y'all out on the ship, said you had taken casualties...they asked me to come along as a civilian advisor...whatever that entailed... I came here on a ship called the Erebus; I space walked over. "
"Any reason for them sending a whole other ship?" Stone asked.
"They're here to mop up the mess, and that's not all, they're sending what's left of another team of theirs; the Sharkpack, only problem is they're on the company's hitlist too," Andrew explained.
"Makes sense, they don't want any loose ends..." Christopher stated.
"The Erebus has more than a hundred mercs on it, and sooner than later they're gonna be here." Andrew added.
"So, you're telling me we just woke up from one shitty situation to another? Well, that's just fucking peachy!" Hudson stated.
"Relax, Hud! We know they're coming... we can probably hold out, but not on the Sulaco." Christopher stated.
"We're over a planet called Florina 161...it's a prison, a big ass prison that was just recently decommissioned and is operating on a skeleton crew. It's not a bad place to hold out for help," Andrew stated, as he gripped his pistol tightly.
"We need to get Hicks and Vas on their feet first. They're not 100%, so we may have to improvise." Stone stated.
"I umm...picked these up back on the Erebus, they might help." Andrew said, pulling several phials of WX booster serum out from his chest pocket.
"Booster shots?" Elizabeth asked, taking them from her grandfather's hand.
"They're called WX."
"Oh my God, these are like Captain America's Super Soldier Serum...they'll get Hicks and Vasquez up and walking in no time!" Elizabeth exclaimed in amazement.
"How?" Ellen asked.
"It introduces artificial blood cells into the body's circulatory system – like, really strong ones. But they're really expensive to manufacture, it's why us schlubs at the colonial level never got our hands on any; they were still in R&D officially, which explains why a strike team would have them," Elizabeth marveled.
"What about Newt? She can't be caught in a firefight!" Ellen stated, concerned.
"Shit, man, she can handle herself... she survived without us down there on the planetoid, maybe we could hide her or something!" Hudson suggested.
"Newt?" Andrew asked.
"A little girl, she was hiding in the colony complex when we rescued her," Ellen explained. "That's a different situation, though, Hudson – down there the aliens weren't carrying firearms and shooting at us. These mercenaries will!"
"I'll make sure she stays safe, whatever we do." Andrew promised.
"Right then we have to – " Elizabeth began to explain but was interrupted by an explosion that rocked the bridge.
"Shit! That didn't sound good..." Elizabeth said as she and Christopher ran over to a console displaying the ship's readouts.
"Umm...we're gonna have company, multiple boarding parties, and they ain't friendly." Christopher stated.
"Well at least they don't have acid for blood..." Stone stated as she moved the selector lever on her pulse rifle to burst fire.
"I hear that man," Hudson said as the group moved out of the bridge, preparing for combat with Weyland-Yutani's mercs, secretly happy that their enemies this time around were human.
...
The Sharkpack all heard and felt explosions ripple throughout the ship.
"Boss? Al? We've got small explosions coming from various areas around the ship; I'm no Knight, but I'd have to guess small breaching charges... are there any pirate bands in the area, or raiders in the vicinity?" Kaufman reported as the team all went alert at the sudden changes.
Loera's response took a few moments to be produced, and when it did it came across as highly garbled, almost like it was being deliberately scrambled.
"No...we...Kau...we've got...sorry...personal...cla...ten." His scattered voice repeated, and Kaufman looked at her teammate.
"Shit..." Bonang said as his heartbeat increased.
"Someone's jamming the signal?" Denney asked worriedly.
"Yeah, but that's not possible. Wey-Yu tech's top of the line, only person I know who could hack the comm channels is me!" Kaufman stressed.
"What if they don't have to hack into the system?" Akula wondered suspiciously.
"What are you saying, Dev?" She asked.
"I think we've got another problem – we better get frosty," Akula continued.
"Well, we should be near the cryo deck now so..." Denney began as suddenly a metallic ping was heard from nearby, and a white canistered grenade landed near the group.
Bonang looked down at the stun grenade in alarm.
"Shit - flashbang!" he yelled as an ear-splitting boom dropped them to the deck, and everything lit up in a blinding white light.
...
Kept you waiting huh?
Hello, all EAP404 here, hope you are all doing well out there in this world of ours.
Obviously, I have to give a huge shoutout to DarthTanabrus and AlphaLima1980; for getting this chapter read and edited; Adding their own special touches as well. Please support their pages/blogs, they mean a lot to me and are deserving of praise.
Also, I apologize for taking so long to post a new chapter it's been a busy couple months to say the least.
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