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 13: When Words Collide Pt. 3
Abigail Denney wasn't an experienced soldier in any way, shape, or form. Sure, she knew the basics of handling a firearm, but her field of expertise was strictly the scientific part, thus her part of any deployment was limited to support roles in a safe environment. It left her with no practical experience when it came to dealing with stun grenades.
Her vision was blinded by a piercing white light, and her hearing was overwhelmed by a deafening ringing noise. Her sight was limited to blurry shadows and a burning sensation in her eyes.
She barely distinguished her teammates, who were all experiencing the same predicament. While still momentarily blind and deaf functionally, she resorted to feeling her way around, and in so doing she managed to turn to the container holding the royal facehugger parasite; she crawled over to it, her fumbling hands leading the way, and she reached to grasp it, only for the object to be taken away from her by unknown hands. She looked up, her vision still quite blurry but recovering, and she found herself quite surprised when she managed to count a dozen people, their obfuscated silhouettes suggesting they were heavily armed and wearing uniforms similar to their own. Mercenaries, for sure, she thought, but sent by who? The most logical answer was Weyland-Yutani. The question, however, was: How the hell were they here?
Bonang and Akula had recovered sooner, and with more experience with flashbangs. Following their first instincts, they readied their weapons, making ready to quickly dispatch their attackers. But quicker boots knocked them out of their hands before they could do anything. The two men were singled out and soon had weapons trained on them by a few of the mercs.
Kaufman glanced up at the group, and a feeling of dread and fear invaded her mind. They were outgunned and outmanned, roughly three to one. The leader of the group stepped in, an imposing man with a scarred, clean shaved head, regarding the lot of them with barely disguised contempt.
"Don't even think about keeping your weapons off them... don't want any surprises..." The man said with authority in his voice.
"Boss?" another merc said, approaching him and holding up the container containing the facehugger.
"Well, well, well…" He smiled, glaring at the four individuals on the floor. "So, these are the notorious Sharkpack..." and with a sneer he added, "I thought they would put up more of a fight – I didn't expect to find such a group of pukes."
Kaufman looked at him with fire in her eyes. The man ignored her.
"Kreiger?" The leader ordered a mercenary wearing a radio pack similar to Kaufman's. "Get me into their comms – I wanna speak to their boss."
"Sir," Kreiger acknowledged, adjusting his frequency to match with the Pack's.
"Gibson?" Another mercenary nearby said walking up to the scene.
Nice to be able to put a name with that ugly mug of yours….. Gibson…. Kaufman mused.
"Taylor?" Gibson asked.
"We need to get this area secure," Taylor stated with worry. "The clock's ticking and we still don't know where Mils is."
"Keep your pants on, Taylor…" Gibson ordered, handing the container to a younger woman. "Heeter, here – keep this safe, take it back to the shuttle." Heeter picked the container up with a grunt, taking notice of the weight right away.
"Shit...wow this thing is huge..." She said, examining it with her eyes.
"Save it for the eggheads back on the Erebus," Gibson ordered with a cough. "I want Omega and Sigma teams to move to the lower engineering decks...never know how the grunts are gonna play this out."
Denney noticed her submachine gun was to her side, maybe a foot or two away. She crawled towards it as slowly and quietly as she could, only for her to receive a stiff kick to her abdomen from the sharp-eyed Gibson while another merc kicked the gun away. She gasped as the air from her lungs was ejected from her body by the force of the kick. This got the attention of the other three mercs who were now very much aware of their surroundings and the situation. They all took notice of Denney's pain-filled gasp, Bonang in particular feeling his heart and mind fill with fury, rage and protective instincts.
"You motherfucker!" He yelled as he rushed to tackle Gibson, but he was caught and restrained by a pair of mercs, even as he struggled against the strength of the two men.
"Jesus Christ, Gibson!" Heeter yelled in protest.
"It was in self-defense; she was going for her gun. Plus, I ordered you to get back to the shuttle, Heeter! Now..." Gibson said, lowering his voice to an almost inhuman growl, prompting Heeter and a pair of mercs to move rapidly away from the troubling scene. Taylor and Gibson returned to their four captives.
"Let's hurry this up, please," Taylor suggested.
"Fine..." Gibson said, turning to face the Sharkpack members.
"I swear to God...I'm gonna fucking end you, I promise you that," Bonang snarled in an icy, hateful calm through gritted teeth.
"Oh, really?" Gibson replied, raising an eyebrow as his grim expression became somewhat more humorous.
"You know…" He said, as he squatted down to level with the New Zealander. "It's a shame I have my orders – I could've solved this problem very easily," he taunted them, "and I mean very easily." He flipped his pistol in his hand so he held the barrel, and without warning hit Bonang across the face, causing his nose to bleed profusely. Bonang fell backwards, his nose clearly broken. He spit blood to his side.
"Is that all?" Bonang teased him, "You need to try harder, honey," he smirked.
"Well, you're one tough sonavabitch, aren't you?" Gibson laughed, and then he launched a solid kick into Bonang's kidneys, "I actually rather like you – I'd recruit you if I didn't have to waste you." The mercs kept their guns trained on him, daring him to make a move.
"I'd sooner be spaced..." Kaufman said from nearby, and Gibson turned to her, smiling.
"Careful what you wish for, my dear...Kreiger? Where are we at?" Gibson asked as the other contractor gave him a thumbs up.
"We're good for crossover, sir."
Gibson's cruel and derisive smirk became a more satisfied grin. "Alright, let's get this over with then... Taylor?"
"Right...Private Contractors, as per clause ten of your contracts, you are no longer protected under contractor code forty-seven." Taylor began, reciting the speech like a well-trained lawyer, "The Company thanks you for your service. If any of you have families, they will receive due compensation for their loss, all paychecks you have received are final and taxable-"
"Okay, they get the point!" Gibson interrupted him. The members of the Sharkpack looked at each other in anger, shock, and sadness; they knew they were expendable to the ultimate degree, and Denney in particular looked over at Bonang as blood streamed from his face. By the jolt of pain at each indrawn breath, she knew she had several broken ribs, but that changed how she felt about his predicament not one iota.
"Fuck me, I knew something about this was wrong from the word go," Akula stated as he tried to work out a plan in his mind to escape their current predicament.
"I hate when you're right..." Kaufman whispered as Gibson was handed a communicator by Kreiger who had connected to the Costaguana.
"Channel is open, sir," Kreiger reported, "whenever you're ready."
Gibson put on the headset and adjusted the microphone pickup before speaking. "Costaguana, this is a private contractor team on board the Sulaco, I want to speak with Captain D. T. Douglass," Gibson announced, as back on the Costaguana the message filtered through the comm line's speakers on the bridge.
Loera looked over at the communicator back on the ship, and then to his boss in dismay. Douglass pulled a disgusted face as he recognized the voice of his old comrade and sometime rival Gibson. Sonavabitch, he knew he'd recognized that voice.
"I'll take it, Al..." Douglass said glumly as he was handed the communicator; after a few seconds to don the headset and adjust the mic, he answered.
"Yeah, I read you Lima Charlie, Gibson, you maláka."
"David Tiberius, long time no see. Clearly your Greek hasn't improved..."
"You know the unwritten rule, every private operator needs to be able to cuss in at least three different languages... you said you're onboard the Sulaco?"
"You're going senile, old man, obviously I just said I was there. Now, I've got four of your contractors with me, plus one package. I'm assuming you have the other one?"
Douglass could hear his smug, sadistic smirk all the way across the void between them. That was the difference between them – Douglass might have pursued his objectives with some degree of ruthlessness at times, when it was required, but he wasn't a sadist like Vladimir Gibson. He didn't take pleasure in dispensing pain, and he wouldn't if he didn't need to. He privately swore that when they crossed over to the Sulaco that he might just make an exception for that ublyudok.
"We do, a juvenile xenomorph," he answered.
"Right. Well, the big wigs at Wey-Yu want it, and they also want you and your second present when it gets handed over. That means I need you on my ship ASAP."
"Alright, but what about my people?"
"I've got the other bug with me now..."
"What. About. My team?!" Douglass growled into the comm, biting off each word.
"You know the rules – they've got Clause Tens..."
"My second and I have another clause in our contracts, which supersedes Clause –"
"I know about it, I have the same one in mine," Gibson cut him off. "You two will be safe, just bring me that damn bug!"
Douglass covered the mic with one hand as he sighed in defeat. "Dammit, Al, we just became a loose end ourselves. Wey-Yu sent these ublyutkiy to clean up after us, I can fucking feel it."
Loera looked at him for a moment, saying nothing but silently acknowledging the absurdity of the situation. At length he replied, "What do you wanna do, boss?"
"What can we do? Wey-Yu contracted them the same as they contracted us to do our jobs. The Company's too powerful, they've got us by the short and curlies," he answered helplessly.
He paused for a moment's contemplation, though. They were his people, no matter what. The mission came first, but the men and women under his command were his responsibility, and he had vowed to do right by them no matter what, as their boss, as their commanding officer, and as a Ranger.
"One thing I do know, though. I don't care who contracted them for this job, my team doesn't go down without a big fight, and I aim to keep it that way." Loera nodded his concurrence, which brought a fierce smile to Douglass's face as he removed his hand from the microphone. "Okay, Gibson, we'll be there, but I don't want any strings attached. And you'd better not harm a hair on my operators' heads before I get there. We had to go through more hell than you can imagine to get these packages, and it cost me more than half my team, so you and your thugs had better keep that firmly in mind."
"Fine, no tricks, Douglass. No delays though, or I start busting caps. Weyland-Yutani doesn't look kindly on failure or loose ends, as you and I both know," Gibson's voice snarled in reply before the communications display showed that the channel had been closed.
Douglass threw down the headset, and he looked at Loera with a sigh.
"Get the other bug ready, Al, and warm up a shuttle...I'll be right behind you..."
"Right, Boss. So, what do we do next?"
"We're the Sharkpack, Al, we do what we do best, and then we pick up the pieces. Now get going," Douglass ordered as he rested his hands on the console in front of him while Loera walked away, stopping at the doorway of the bridge.
"What about their lockers?"
"If it comes to it, I'll help you clean them out, it's the least I can do..." Douglass responded as he shook his head at just how far things had fallen apart.
Gibson handed the communicator back to Krieger and then turned towards the Sharkpack.
"Krieger, get secondary teams ready...we move after we're done here."
"Let's get this done Gibson, we've got a lot of ship left to cover," Taylor complained.
"Give me a minute, Taylor. All right, you pukes, listen up. I promised your boss I wouldn't harm a hair on your heads, but that doesn't apply to everything below that, so… who wants to die first?" Gibson asked, smiling as he pulled out his pistol and strode over to the group. Bonang was still on the ground with Denney struggling to raise herself up from her stomach, coughing as her ribs protested in response.
"How about you, pretty girl? Then again, it would be a shame to waste such a fine piece of ass," Gibson stated as he pressed the barrel of the pistol against the side of Kaufman's face.
"Go gargle acid, you scar-faced fuck..." She growled in anger, right before spitting in his face. Gibson smiled as he removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the sputum from his cheek.
"I'll take that as a compliment, my dear... now who's it gonna be?" Gibson chuckled, but he received his answer.
"Me," Akula stated.
Gibson and Kaufman both turned to him in surprise, with despair rising up in the latter at losing someone for whom she had found feelings.
"No, Devon!" she gasped in horror.
"Well, that's more like it, I think. Your friend over there wouldn't be much fun, and blondie's still figuring out how many ribs of hers I broke with just one kick, so let's get this started," Gibson said with a smirk.
"No, no! I'll fucking kill you, you bastard!" Kaufman screamed as she lunged toward Gibson to tear his throat out. Two mercenaries surged forward and clamped their hands roughly on her upper arms to restrain her. She struggled mightily to free herself from their unforgiving grip, but to no avail as she could not dislodge their hands.
"It's okay, Lexi, just be cool..." Akula urged her with a wink to calm down, as Kaufman continued to struggle against the two mercs.
"Get off me! You motherfuckers!" She screamed her hate at them as they pressed their full weight onto her, pressing her down on the floor.
"No!"
Gibson walked up to the Sharkpack's sniper, and he aimed his pistol at the young man's head.
A single gunshot was heard.
...
The Acheron survivors moved as fast as they could towards the crew quarters. They had decided to take an alternative route under the primary corridors and compartments to try and avoid any mercenary activity.
"So? The colony fell in just a couple of weeks?" Andrew asked in slight surprise as Elizabeth related to him the bloodbath of LV-426.
"Sadly. Ward, our chief of security did his best, but no one was expecting creatures with acid for blood and razor-sharp jaws to start coming out of people..."
"Sounds like I missed one hell of a party – makes what we went through on the Nostromo seem, well…poultry by comparison," Andrew snorted.
Ellen turned around with a derisive smirk towards Andrew.
"Cause what we went through was a cakewalk, right, Andrew?" She asked.
"Well, obviously it wasn't a goddamn cakewalk. I wouldn't want to do it again, that much I do know. Not without this, anyway," Andrew responded slyly as he gripped the pistol attached to his hip.
"Well, it was one hell of a family bonding experience, wasn't it?" Elizabeth added with a laugh.
"Yeah, some vacation..." Stone grumbled.
"One of those things alone is enough, hope we don't find any more...and you said there was a Queen?"
"One badass bitch, too, and she was fucking big. You shoulda seen her, she dwarfed the other bugs without a problem..." Hudson said, shaking his head.
"Don't remind me, Hudson, these things just keep getting worse and worse," Stone added as the group finally emerged from the Crawlspace, arriving at a corner leading to a large causeway.
"Chris, are we getting close?" Ellen asked, fearing for the safety of the still frozen cryo chambers and Newt in particular.
"We detour here and cut through...engineering...hey, the rest of you hear that?" Christopher inquired, lowering his voice to a whisper as his combat senses immediately perked up. The corporal made a hand signal to his fellow Marines who all passed back the signal and hugged the wall, the civilian members of the group mirroring their actions.
"We got company?" Elizabeth whispered as she prepared her submachine gun.
"Don't know yet. Just got a feeling we're not alone..." her brother responded.
"Split up... we'll take the left side, you go right," Ellen suggested, looking at her grandson before nodding towards herself, Andrew and Hudson.
"Sounds good...Hudson, watch their six," the taller of the two Mils men responded as the trio moved to the left side of the causeway, staying low to avoid being spotted by possible enemy personnel.
As the group slowly moved down the causeway, they heard a loud boisterous voice speaking.
"Listen up pukes, I promised your boss I wouldn't harm a hair on your heads, but that doesn't apply to everything below that, so… who wants to die first?" the voice stated.
"I recognize that voice, that's Gibson. Nasty looking bastard and a real piece of work, he's leading the mercs," Andrew whispered to Ellen as the voice got louder.
"Who's he talking to?" She responded as the group moved slowly, inching closer towards the noise, and they took cover behind a large pair of crates, close enough to hear the conversation clearly but far enough not to be detected.
"How about you, pretty girl? Then again it would be a shame to waste such a fine piece of ass," Gibson continued, as a younger, feminine voice answered.
"Go gargle acid, you scar-faced fuck..."
"I'll take that as a compliment, my dear. Now who's it gonna be?" Gibson asked, but he received his answer. Christopher looked around the corner of the crate, strategizing in his head.
"We got a plan?" Stone asked.
"Get ready to move, Ash. We need this to be quick..." Elizabeth stated as Christopher moved back to the group.
"Andrew? I think we found your other mercs. The ones whose contracts are up as well? Well, it looks like they're about to be disposed of," he responded.
"Me..." Another voice answered, getting her attention straightaway. It was a voice she hadn't heard in years, though in her head she doubted it could belong to who she thought it did.
"No, Devon!" the female voice yelled angrily as she sounded like she was being restrained.
"Pick your targets, make your shots count." Christopher whispered as he held his hand out with all five digits extended, signaling a silent countdown.
(5)
"Well, that's more like it... your friend over there wouldn't be much fun, and blondie's still figuring out how many ribs of hers I broke with just one kick...so let's get this started," Gibson said with a smirk.
(4)
"No! No! I'll fucking kill you, you bastard!"
(3)
"It's okay Lexi, just be cool..."
(2)
"Get off me! You motherfuckers!"
(1)
"No!"
Christopher Mils and Stone watched as Gibson walked up to the Sharkpack's sniper, aiming his pistol at the young man's head.
A single gunshot was heard, exiting Stone's rifle with the precision of a sniper, and the armor piercing bullet entered the nearest merc's head as his cranium erupted in blood, snapping back from the force of the gunshot.
Gibson took notice of this right away, preparing to move to cover, but before he could Akula lunged forwards with a fierce headbutt, knocking the larger man back and causing him to drop his pistol in the process. Akula grabbed the sidearm and with laser focus and catlike reflexes he dropped the two mercs holding Kaufman down with quick headshots. She kicked them off of her and grabbed her submachine gun, opening blind fire towards the remaining mercenaries.
"Goddamn, it's an ambush!" Gibson yelled as he took cover behind a crate, his nose now broken from Akula's vicious headbutt.
"Get moving squad! Take the right flank!" Christopher ordered as two more mercs fell dead from Kaufman and Akula's weapons. Akula slid Bonang's auto-shotgun back to him.
"Ian!" He yelled as Bonang picked up his weapon, Kaufman moving to help Denney stand and laying down a field of suppressing fire with her submachine gun until the bolt locked back. She tossed the empty weapon to the side to switch to her pulse rifle. Though the blowback from the pulse rifle surprised her, she quickly adapted to its strong recoil. Though she hadn't hit any mercs, the suppressing fire did its job in getting their heads down and renewing their interest in getting behind cover.
Kreiger was shot squarely in his thigh with a short burst from Christopher's rifle; he fell holding his mangled leg just as a second burst of bullets killed him.
"Fall back, God damnit, fall back!" Gibson yelled as he looked at what was left of his team – only he and two of his operators remained. He spotted Andrew around the corner.
"Mils!" He yelled as both Christopher and Andrew turned to look at the man. Gibson pointed towards Andrew.
"You're dead..." Gibson threw a smoke grenade as he and the two mercenaries retreated.
"Grenade!" Christopher shouted, prompting himself and the other survivors to very quickly seek solid cover from the expected detonation. When none was forthcoming, Christopher dared to poke his head out, and he saw the grenade laying inert in the middle of the corridor. It hadn't exploded, but still, the mercenaries were gone.
"Oh yeah, you better run, you motherfuckers!" Hudson yelled as he looked to chase after the retreating mercs.
"Hudson! Remember there's more of them..." Ellen pointed out as the hyped-up young private settled back, defeated.
"We got most of them though... that was one hell of a firefight..." Elizabeth panted as adrenaline flooded her system. "Well, how about that? His grenade didn't go off," she further noted, indicating the unexploded ordnance in their midst.
"Smoke, too, meaning he was looking to withdraw from the AO. So mercs or xenos?" Christopher asked, changing his pulse rifle's clip, walking up to his sister and deftly avoiding the dud grenade on the deck – it never paid off very well to mess around with unexploded ordnance, especially dud rounds.
"Neither Chrissy." Elizabeth said with a sigh.
"I think we handled ourselves pretty well...though I'd say you've taken to that things like a duck to water." Andrew said to Ellen, indicating the M41A in her hands.
"Well, I've had plenty of practice since the Nostromo," Ellen replied.
"Umm...guys," Stone said with a gulp as the group turned back towards the hostages, who had all their weapons turned towards them, ready to fire. Denney kept her pistol trained on the group in front of her, with Kaufman staring daggers and aiming her pulse rifle at the nearest Marine, while Bonang still had fresh blood dripping down into his mouth; the cooper-tasting fluid rolled over his taste buds as he steadied himself, preparing to go to war with a new group of adversaries.
Though the new arrivals had saved them from Gibson's group, he wasn't sure if they'd stay friendly for long, especially if they found out who they were or who they represented. The fact of the matter still remained – Douglass had seemingly betrayed them, or at least been coerced into doing so by Gibson.
The sickening reality had finally entered Bonang's mind. They were sent onto the ship to die, and if it weren't for the Colonial Marines whom he and his teammates were currently pointing their guns at, things could have gone way too far. He glanced over at Denney, who was laying on her side with her pistol in one hand, the other wrapped around her ribcage. She was taking short, sharp, and shallow breaths, indicating that Gibson's kick had done some serious damage to her ribs. Akula and Kaufman were ready to fire on a moment's notice as per usual.
"Hey, let's take it easy now..." Andrew stated, holding one hand up and holstering his sidearm with the other to signal an attempt at negotiation. His firing hand came up empty to join the other the moment he had it secured in its holster.
"Well, that's one way to say thank you..." Elizabeth joked with Hudson.
"Tell me about it man... hey, in case you haven't been keeping up on current events, we just saved your asses!" He said with genuine frustration, which was muddled by his jocular tone. Ellen, on the other hand, had had enough of the potential conflict.
"In case you're unaware; those mercenaries we just saved you from aren't the only ones here – there's a few dozen more of them probably roaming around the ship. Now, you can kill us and take your chances with the mercs, or you can put your guns down and join us. We've got a plan to get out of here alive...so make your choices carefully." Ellen stated firmly, while at the same time she kept a finger on the trigger of her pulse rifle, which had become rather an extension of herself, something she had adapted to over the last few weeks.
Bonang looked behind him towards his teammates and found his answer – they knew there was strength in numbers and the best kind of company was the one in front of them.
"Weapons down, gang..." Bonang ordered as the Sharkpack followed their de facto pack leader, lowering their weapons. Bonang immediately moved back towards Denney rapidly, getting down on one knee.
"How do you feel?"
"I need to get to what passes for a medlab around here and get my ribs taped up," Denney responded with a cough.
"Abby..."
"I think he broke a couple ribs...I'll be hurting for a while," Denney gasped, groaning as she picked up her submachine gun.
"Can you stand?" Bonang asked as he offered his teammate a hand, Denney graciously gripped his larger palm as she was lifted to her feet, though she leaned on Bonang's larger frame, which stopped her from falling in the rush.
"Shit – easy now," Bonang said, letting the smaller merc steady herself. Akula and Kaufman then sprightly approached the scene.
"You guys okay?" Bonang asked.
"Us?! What about you two? That bastard seemed to get turned on from kicking and pistol-whipping you!" Kaufman exclaimed, exasperated.
"I'll be fine...just need a couple of aspirin...or maybe a whole bottle," Denney groaned while Bonang pressed his gloved palm to his nose, still noticing the crimson liquid consistently was still dripping from his obviously broken nose, while feeling a sting upon inspecting it.
"Yep...definitely broken, guess my days of being a model are over before they can begin. Mind telling me why sacrificing yourself sounded like a good idea there, mate?" Bonang asked Akula in particular.
"I heard the Marines coming from a mile away, figured you guys would be safe even if I went down," Akula smirked, and then he felt a small fist enter into his arm.
"Ugh! Don't ever do that again, dickhead," Kaufman admonished him.
"I'll try not to, Lex..." Akula responded.
"Adrenaline is still pumping, I see – ohhh shit," Denney noted, her reply cut short by another pulse of agony.
"Well, I'm feeling a little pissed, a little confused, and a whole lot eager to kill anything I see," Kaufman matter of factly answered.
"Easy, Lexi," Akula cautioned, "we gotta keep our wits about us, especially since we're now teaming up with the same people we were contracted to terminate." He looked nervously at his teammates, debating on how to open that can of worms and inform the Acheron survivors of that catastrophe.
"Ahh great... thanks for reminding me, Dev." Bonang groaned.
Stone's ears perked once again upon hearing the marksman's nickname, and she turned to walk towards the mercenaries.
"So, which one of you is Dev?" Stone asked as Akula turned around with a sigh.
"Who wants to...holy shit," Akula said, stopping short as before his very eyes stood his sister, the same sister he hadn't seen, let alone spoken to in years. Stone herself appeared shocked and amazed that her brother was on her ship, and not only that, but she had saved him from certain doom.
"Ashley? No fucking way..." Akula said as he finally let his guard down, his teammates looking on in surprise as the strong, silent Akula appeared to be exhaling shaky breaths. Kaufman remembered her and Devon's discussion back on the ship - he had mentioned his sister, but the likelihood of them running into her along with the horrifying realization that they had been hired to kill her as well hadn't as yet entered into her thoughts.
"Shit, this is weird as all hell," Kaufman said under her breath. The two siblings stood in silence, unsure how to break the ice that had formed between the two of them over the years.
"You, umm..." Akula started, he took in his sister's appearance; she was much more muscular, tan, and she looked different in her Colonial Marine armor, plus her hair was shorter than he remembered, and it was… white?
"You?" Stone added, taking in her brother's appearance; he had a scar on his cheek, which looked freshly stitched, he looked like the other soldiers in his unit, dressed in black like a trained assassin, but his outfit wasn't the only thing black – so was his hair.
"Dyed your hair." They both said simultaneously which caused the pair to nervously laugh, which felt cathartic in many ways. After a few moments of silence, they continued their awkward reunion.
"Well let's just say I looked a little, um .. boyish with brown hair. And who fucked up your stitches?" Stone said.
"I thought I did a rather good job of it myself," Kaufman retorted, looking pointedly at Stone and daring her to talk some more trash. "It was either that or let him bleed all over me and the med bay."
"Well, as for my hair color, I always thought the color I had wouldn't blend into the foliage really well..." Akula added, holding a strand of his dark hair in his hand.
"How are you even here, Devon? I mean on my ship?" She asked again.
"It's a long story..."
"Well, I've got time..."
"Ash...listen...let's just say I was batting for the wrong team."
"So you're the bad guys?"
"No... I'm not... listen, I was part of a team of mercenaries hired to do some dirty work for...Weyland-Yutani."
"Shit...of all the companies to work for, that's the one on my personal shitlist...so that explains the getup. Mind telling me why you're here?"
"All that matters is that I don't work for...the Company anymore..." Akula finished explaining.
"Well for now I guess that'll have to do for an explanation," Stone muttered, just as Corporal Mils walked up.
"Umm, Ash? Mind filling us in?" he inquired.
"Oh, yeah. Corporal Christopher Mils? This is Devon Akula, my brother." Stone explained.
"Shit, really? Wow, are any other family reunions gonna happen? My Aunt Deloris gonna show up at any point?" Hudson said, walking over.
"This is Private First Class Hudson, he's our resident tech expert." Stone explained.
"What about the rest of your friends?" Christopher asked.
"Umm...I think it can wait, Chrissy; Dev is family, and I trust him. Plus, we did just save their bacon so it would be kinda a dick move for him to betray his little sis, right?" Stone said, wrapping her arm around her brother's shoulders.
"Right...Ellen, Andrew? We should be getting close to cryo. Are you guys okay to move?" Christopher asked Akula, who looked over his shoulder to his still recovering squadmates.
"We're following you, mate; we'll watch your ass, don't worry about that," Bonang explained, turning his baseball cap backward.
"It's the least we can do after you saved ours," Denney added, Kaufman, meanwhile, had picked up Kreiger's radio; she removed it from his corpse and, using her wrist console and splicing kit, was able to hack into the strike team's communications.
"Whatcha up to Lexi?" Bonang asked.
"Just seeing if I can...yes! Give us a little advantage," Kaufman answered as she held her hand up to her earpiece and immediately began picking up communications between the various strike teams.
All strike teams this is Gibson! Alpha team is down, I'm falling back to checkpoint 2, the Marines are awake and alert...they've got some backup...I want all radios open! Coordinate your positions, hunt them down.
"Umm...guys; sounds like they've figured out that we and the Marines are in cahoots," Kaufman reported.
"Wonder if the boss knows?" Denney asked.
"I don't know, and I really don't care to be honest with ya. Right now, let's focus on getting off this ship..." Bonang finished.
"Ian, wait, what about the specimen?" Denney asked urgently, grabbing Bonang's wrist.
"Shit...if they've got it now..."
"We need to tell them."
"I hear ya...hey!" Bonang said, getting the attention of the Marines.
"Look we didn't arrive on this ship alone, we had a... thing in our custody."
"What kind of thing? You don't mean…" Elizabeth asked, immediately getting nervous.
"A parasite. We call it a, a…facehugger," Denney explained, causing all present to immediately get tense at the mention of the very name of the alien horror.
"Jesus fucking Christ! Are you out of your goddamned minds?! Where did you get it?" Andrew asked, immediately horrified that the same type of parasite that had brought so much death in its wake was now on the ship.
"It's a long story..." Kaufman said under her breath, ashamed.
"Look we might as well tell you the truth, we were hired...to take you guys out, while you were still in the freezers. One of you was supposed to be... impregnated by our bug." Bonang continued.
"You fucking serious, man? This is just getting worse and worse – " Hudson began, outraged at the revelation. "Explain to me why we shouldn't just waste you fuckers right now?!"
"Those were our orders, yes, but we were considering maybe tossing the thing into the nearest airlock...we lost half our team getting it in the first place." Denney said regrettably.
"We didn't get hired to commit some war crime against people we've never even met, especially when one turned out to be someone we haven't seen in a while." Akula added, referring to his sister.
"Why'd they try to have you killed then?" Christopher asked.
"They either found a better team, or we learned too much," Denney answered.
"They haven't changed at all, have they, Rip?" Andrew asked Ellen, glowering at the depths to which Weyland-Yutani would sink to acquire the alien.
"If they've changed for the worse, I'd say more than you know," Ellen answered, mentally overwhelmed with the pile of evidence mounting up against the company.
"Any idea where the facehugger is now?" Elizabeth asked.
"No idea, they're probably taking it back to their ship."
"Then we don't have much time," Akula admitted. "Once they get there, they'll blow up the Sulaco."
"Why am I not surprised?" Ellen said, rolling her eyes and sighing.
"As your friend said… they haven't changed," Kaufman added.
"Okay, we share the same enemy... we have the same goals, we see any Weyland-Yutani bastards, we kill them, we get to Newt and the others, then we go from there," Christopher barked, ready to go.
"Fucking A!" Hudson agreed.
"Right...Andrew, Elizabeth?" Ellen said as she led the way with the Marines and the Sharkpack close behind.
...
On the Erebus, the rest of the Weyland-Yutani mercenaries prepared themselves for storming into the Sulaco; they were organized and assigned to teams of usually seven to twelve, with each team named after a letter in the old Army phonetic alphabet.
Cavender adjusted her boot with a tight knot. She shook her head as she grabbed her pistol, making her ponytail swing in the air. She battled at charging the M4A3 service pistol. Despite having taken basic combat training when she joined the Company, she wasn't familiarized with.
She surveyed the motley crew of mercenaries: Pirates, former military, criminals, convicts, even a few thrill seekers wanting to see the universe for free and get the latest toys in the field of corporate raiding.
"Alright listen up!" One of the team leaders barked, "I want Team Victor and Team Quebec to stay here in case we need EVAC, keep those escape pods primed just in case." Some of the mercs looked back quizzically at their command officer.
"Why do we need the escape pods Boss? Thought this was a simple snatch and grab operation?"
"We're taking a warship by force, son, they're not going down without a fight... Team Romeo let's move...come on," the team leader yelled as he led a few dozen mercs into the nearest shuttle. Cavender spotted two stray mercs from one of the nearby reserve teams.
"Diaz? Hawkins?" She yelled firmly, as the two mercenaries, a short Latino man and a taller black woman, came marching over.
"You two come with me, we're gonna take an alternate route...once we're off the shuttle, we head to the hangar bay..." Cavender stated as she prepared herself mentally and physically for the coming encounters, her mind sharply tuned and trained to one objective... finding Andrew Mils.
...
Stone and Akula walked side by side, moving through the corridors of the military ship, trying to patch their relationship up as best as they could.
"So...let me get this straight, you saved one of their bosses from a monster...and they signed you on the spot?" Stone said, unconsciously bouncing with every step, her enthusiasm for her brother's history overwhelming her.
"A mutated form of a Morelet's Crocodile...it was exposed to some form of steroid in captivity, escaping in the process... The Company just happened to be visiting the part of Mexico I was tracking it down in. Scouting a new facility, most likely..." Akula explained.
"So, they just hired you on the spot?"
"Not really, it was either that or get butchered for killing a drug cartel's pet..." Akula finished.
"Shit that makes me joining the Corps pale in comparison..."
"Let me guess...someone dared you to..." Akula prospected, perhaps knowing the answer.
"Not a dare, more like a wager..." Stone answered sheepishly.
"How much?"
"500...in cash... I bet a roommate that if I went into the Colonial Marine Corps and she went into Colonial Development, I'd end up on more planets than her..."
"Really? What happened to her?"
"Her ship got blown up by separatists. That was about a year ago, we were both tied...at 17."
"Jesus...sorry Ash..."
"It's old history Dev, though I guess it makes me remember why I joined the Corps in the first place, to make sure things like that stop happening..."
"How noble… Beats my job any day..." Akula admitted. Behind him, Denney and Kaufman noticed the obscure contrast of the siblings' appearance.
"So, Akula has a sister?" Denney pondered.
"Yeah, he mentioned her back on the ship while you were still out of it, said she joined up years ago, also that they had a falling out...a big one," Kaufman explained.
"Never would've thought Akula was a brunette. Makes sense though..." Denney finished. Meanwhile, Ellen and Andrew brainstormed a plan for their immediate future.
"So... what do we do when we get to the chambers?" Andrew asked.
"We get Newt and the others, maybe take the dropship."
"I think that might be the best idea, Ellen, I don't think holding out on this ship is gonna do us much good. So how many of those bastards did you kill?" Andrew asked, referring to the aliens.
"I don't know. To be honest, I stopped counting after the first couple..." Ellen answered honestly – she didn't really have time to count on Hadley's Hope just how many xenomorphs she had killed, but she knew most of them were dead as the colony had been wiped out when the atmospheric processor blew.
"We were more focused on getting the hell out of Dodge, escaping with our lives... just like the Nostromo," Ellen admitted. Andrew knew Ellen could handle herself, but to go up against hundreds of the same alien creature was a true nightmare, one that was hard for him to comprehend.
Elizabeth and Christopher looked over his shoulder from upfront with his sister, as the two Nostromo crewmates walked side by side.
"Hey, Ellie...you are getting a feeling of nostalgia?" Christopher asked.
"Yep...it's like seeing Mom and Dad alive and well again. They even walk like them," Elizabeth responded.
Christopher suddenly held his left hand up in a fist signaling everyone to stop dead in their tracks, he turned around and raised two fingers up pointing towards the nearby wall as the team separated into two smaller ones. Christopher looked inside the cryochamber area and noticed one of them was open.
"Kaufman?" Christopher asked, looking at the young tech expert.
"Gibson, this is Gamma, we've got one of the survivors…" a voice crackled on the radio.
"Copy Gamma move to extraction point 2...I'll meet you there," Gibson responded, unaware that they had been overheard.
"Did they say something about a survivor? They're moving them." Kaufman answered.
"Oh no..." Ellen said under her breath as she moved frantically into the area.
"Ellen, wait! Damn it!" Andrew exclaimed, and he and the rest followed on her heels. Realizing that they might possibly have been walking into a trap, the Marines and mercenaries checked the surrounding area.
"Clear," Bonang whispered.
"Copy that," Hudson responded, marching over as what Ellen saw made her go numb. Newt's cryochamber had been pried open and now lay empty, unlike Hicks' and Vasquez's, which had remained untouched.
"Why'd they leave Vas and Hicks alone?" Stone asked out loud.
"Honestly...if it were us…they wouldn't waste the time or the bullets." Denney answered matter of factly.
"Oh no..." Elizabeth said with a worrying sigh.
"They've got her..." Ellen said quietly.
"What now, man?" Hudson asked.
"We go after them..." Ellen said, picking up her pulse rifle and marching off.
"Ellen! Wait!" Andrew said, going after her, touching her shoulder in a firm yet gentle grasp; she turned around at him expectantly.
"We can't go running off after her...they'll be expecting it and then we'll be walking into a trap for sure," Andrew explained.
"He's right, Grandma...it's a textbook ambush," Christopher sighed.
"I know Andrew, but if we don't...they'll..."
"I know, but she's far too valuable to them, they'll want her alive...they might bring her back to Earth." Andrew stated.
Akula walked over with Kaufman and Stone in tow.
"Your friend's right... it's what we would do...if we had to of course," Akula admitted.
"God Damnit!" Ellen yelled, slamming her fist upon the nearest table, startling everyone; Andrew was particularly surprised by her reaction, as it truly dawned on him just how much this Newt meant to Ellen, and he subsequently reinforced his dedication to finding her safely.
"What do we do now?" Stone asked out loud.
"We get our people back on their feet, we need everyone," Christopher responded as he activated the two remaining cryochambers, which came to life slowly, but surely. Once the lids to the chambers opened, Stone and Hudson moved over Vasquez's chamber, while Elizabeth and Christopher approached Hicks.
"Hudson? Here," Elizabeth said, handing Hudson one of the syringes of the WX vitamin. Vasquez stirred slowly, while Hicks remained still, as he still was covered in bandages covering up his face and upper part of his torso. Vasquez opened her eyes, releasing a curse from her lips.
"Ay, carajo...ugh, five more minutes, Hud..." she grumbled, causing Hudson to smirk.
"Umm, Vas…? We got a situation, I gotta get you back on your feet," Hudson said, trying to come up with the words to explain to the lethal Latina everything that was going on.
"I don't need any fucking crutches! Just help me up... ah, puta madre…" Vasquez grimaced, her leg still in pain from her encounter with the xenomorphs as she sat up.
"Alright, hermana, this is gonna sting just a little, but it'll get you up and walking in no time, which is a good thing because we don't have it," Stone said as she prepared the syringe.
"Jesús... házlo ahora, mierda!" Vasquez borderline yelled.
"Okay, Vas? Let's go, Hud...on three? Three!" Stone commanded as she thrust the booster into Vasquez's leg, which caused the young woman to stiffen from the pain and burning sensation from the contents of the injector entering into her body. Not five minutes afterward she started to feel the pain of her wound dissipate far more rapidly than she had expected.
"Oh man, that's some good shit..." Vasquez said with an exhaled breath of relief, flexing and testing her leg while Elizabeth tended to Hicks.
"Okay, let's get him up on his feet..." She said as Christopher looked over her shoulder. She injected the Corporal with the Wey-Yu vitamin compound, and his body jolted, his breathing and heartbeat accelerating briefly before dropping and leveling out into normalcy.
"How long before he's a hundred percent, Ellie?" Christopher asked, leaning on the domed lid of Hick's chamber.
"Keep in mind this drug isn't exactly standard issue. If I were a betting girl, I'd say ten minutes, maybe less." Elizabeth responded.
"Let's hope for less, cause I don't wanna get bogged down here..." Christopher said as he walked over to Hudson and Stone's location at Vasquez's side.
"Hey Vas...glad you finally decided to join us," Christopher said with a smirk of sarcastic wit.
"Very funny Cristóbal, very funny. You mind telling me what's going on, man? We home?" Vasquez asked with a laugh.
"Nope," Stone shook her head. "Looks like we had our stasis interrupted."
"Yeah and get this... Wey-Yu's trying to take the ship – seems they didn't like that we survived that shitshow," Hudson explained as Vasquez looked around, taking notice of the newer editions to the ensemble of the Sulaco.
"¿Hey, quién es el pinche viejo?" Vasquez narrowed her eyes at the elder Mils.
"Oh, him?" the younger Mils answered. "Well, funny thing is... remember how Ellen's my grandma? Well, that's me and Ellie's grandfather, Andrew. Oh, and the amigos dressed in black? They're Wey-Yu mercs – well, former Wey-Yu mercs, anyway."
"Plus one of them's Sparks' bro..." Hudson butted in.
"No me mames…" Vasquez laughed.
"Okay...look. They haven't seen each other in years, but they're trying to patch things up. Now we can all have a nice little family reunion here on the cryo deck, but first let's get you back on your feet, okay, Vas? No time for fucking around," Hudson said as he helped her stand, and she noticed almost immediately that the pain she felt earlier was all but gone and replaced with a perfectly healed leg.
Vasquez nodded at Elizabeth, Ellen and Andrew while casting a suspicious eye to the Sharkpack remnants.
"Let's get you dressed, hermana, unless you wanna tease Hud some more," Stone said with a smirk.
"Sounds good, Sparks, I'm sure Hudson's sick and tired of looking at my chichis…" Vasquez replied out loud with a knowing smirk, feigning sympathy and causing Hudson to turn beet red and stammer in confusion while the others snickered, and the pair of them walked over to their lockers as Hicks began to blink his uncovered eyes. He coughed a few times before looking around at his surroundings.
"Hicks…" Elizabeth spoke to him, trying to gauge his response and failing. "Corporal Hicks? Dwayne?" Upon hearing his first name, he blinked more rapidly, and then, his eyes opening fully, he rose to his elbows as he looked up slowly at the exobotanist.
"Ripley?" Hicks pondered.
"Close enough, Corporal," Elizabeth smiled, "it's me, Elizabeth. Come on – we have an emergency situation; we've got to get you up." She held Hicks's shoulders as she tried to get him to sit on the edge of his chamber.
"What's happening? Are we home?" He asked, looking around before focusing on the elder Ripley.
"Not yet Hicks, like Ellie said we have an emergency and we've got to get you back on your feet. You were quite out of it from your injuries when we went into cryo, so you're probably still feeling it, but we gave you something to help you get up faster," Ellen explained as Hicks nodded. His legs wobbled as he tried to stand, and both Ripleys held him under his arms to steady him. He tried to take a few tentative steps, and Elizabeth caught him when he stumbled.
"Fuck…" he spat in mild disgust at his slow recovery. "You sure I'm good to be walking around?" Hicks asked as the feeling in his shoulder slowly returned.
Christopher walked over to his squadmate. "Hey, Hicks," he chuckled, "I'm betting you look just like I feel..."
"Then you must feel pretty good, Mils..." Hicks fired back with a smirk.
"Good to have you back, man. Look, long story short, we've got problems. The Company's trying to take the ship and have us taken out, they grabbed the kid, and they've got one of those...things with 'em. We've got a plan, though," Christopher responded.
"Sounds good, though I don't know if I'm gonna be much help..." Hicks said with a cough.
"Nonsense Hicks...we've got some super vitamins running through you. Up till now they've been experimental, but they proved effective enough with yourself and Vasquez...you'll be back to a hundred percent in no time...stretch 'em out." Elizabeth said pressing her hand to Hicks' shoulder to help him stretch his still-injured shoulder, the pain in which had begun to subside significantly.
"You talking about that WX stuff? Shit...well, that explains why my shoulder and my face have stopped hurting a lot sooner than they should have."
"Well, that's good, it means that stuff's working. Now let's get these bandages off.." Elizabeth smiled, slowly and carefully removing the bandages wrapped around Hicks' head; everyone had suspected that his burned tissue, skin and bone might have been damaged beyond repair, but the quick-acting compounds coursing through his system were doing their work, having replaced much of the scarring from Hicks' exposure to the aliens' caustic blood with healthy skin and tissue. The damage now appeared to be minimal, with much of the ruined flesh replaced with fresher, stronger fibers of muscle and skin.
"How's it look?" Hicks asked.
"Damn. Almost like it never even happened..." Elizabeth responded, pleasantly surprised.
"Good. Sooner we get you geared up, the sooner we can get the kid," Christopher said, handing Hicks his pulse rifle.
"Damn straight..."
After a few moments to discuss a possible strategy, the team moved towards the hangar bay. They had decided it was their best option, but with the main corridors being heavily patrolled by the Wey-Yu privateers, they decided on an alternate route through the ductwork.
"So they were originally sent to take us out, but they almost got taken out...and we just decided to save them, man?" Vasquez asked Hudson, who was compelled to walk closer to her than he had felt like getting before, part of which might have been protective instinct though he knew she didn't need it.
"Hey, Vas, things are weird all around right now, I'm not trying to understand this shit. But these mercs have been honest and on the level so far, which makes them okay in my book. Plus Stretch's granddad showed up finally," he shrugged, accepting without understanding.
"Mierda, this shit is nuts, but at least we got our guns..." Vasquez responded while Kaufman listened intently to the radio traffic of the merc teams.
Delta Team...status?
– We're moving towards the primary engine compartment. No sign of the Marines or the Sharks.
Copy, keep it up.
"Well, we're lucky; they haven't caught on to us yet..." Kaufman said, but was interrupted by gunfire.
"Ambush, take cover!" Hicks yelled as he took control of the situation. The group split up in two. On one side, Andrew, Elizabeth and Ellen, the ones who lacked military training, took cover. On the other side, the Marines quickly returned fire to their attackers.
"Lay down suppressive fire! Sharks, you guys good on ammo?" Christopher yelled over to Bonang, who gave him a thumbs up. Christopher then gave Hicks a few hand signals, as he returned fire with Stone and Vasquez.
Overlord we've got them... we've got–uggh!
The leader dropped dead from a headshot from Akula, while another fell victim to Elizabeth's fast shooting.
"Damn – nice shooting, bro..." Stone yelled over the gunfire as when the mercs tried to flank the marines they were gunned down by the Acheron survivors' combined firepower. After a few moments, the mercs lay dead on the floor – in their rush to claim their prize, they had paid the ultimate price.
"Clear?" Hicks asked hesitantly, as he looked amongst the carnage.
"Clear!" Bonang yelled back.
"I forgot how this feels after killing bugs..." Mils remarked sickly, looking at the bloody mess.
"Well, they shot first...they knew the score," Andrew simplified for his grandson.
"That might be true, but it doesn't make it any easier," Elizabeth frowned.
"We'd be more worried if you enjoyed it!" Ellen said with a smirk, though inwardly she was anything but at peace, tormented by the chaotic state of affairs she was faced with; Newt's kidnapping, Andrew's arrival, and the warzone that the Sulaco was becoming.
Delta? Delta, come in?!
"What now?"
"We move to the hangar bay first and secure our exit, then we..." Hicks started, but was interrupted by Kaufman who held her hand up in a fist.
Overlord, this is Gamma team – we've achieved our secondary objective and are moving to rendezvous.
Negative Gamma, I want you to move her to one of the escape pods in case things go south. Leave some of your men with her, then link up with what's left of Alpha.
"Damn, they're taking the girl to an escape pod..." Kaufman explained.
"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Stone asked no one in particular.
"Let's get our girl," Hudson said with gusto.
"Guys? I don't want to be Captain Obvious or anything here, but, ummm…" Kaufman butted in.
"It's a trap, right?" Denney added, nodding with a half smile.
"It is, I already know. Let's take care of one problem at a time first, though, ok? Let's get to the dropship," Christopher nodded to his fellow warriors.
…
Douglass was growing increasingly impatient. Loera had been gone several minutes, with no word about whether or not he had retrieved the frozen specimen. After waiting in frustration for what felt like an eternity, he walked over to the nearest comm panel and thumbed the switch.
"Al?! What's the holdup? Clock's ticking." He asked before releasing it. After a few moments of silence, Douglass instinctively grabbed his pistol and moved for the science lab when he heard shots ring out...
He jumped down the nearest ladder, unsure why Loera hadn't responded yet.
"Al! Al! Loera! Where the hell are you at?" Douglass said as he gripped his pistol tightly, an uneasy feeling entering into his heart and mind. He climbed down a small stairwell, weapon drawn, with the selector lever set to fire, and ready to discharge at a moment's notice.
He stepped into the science lab, taking notice of the missing contained xenomorph. He figured that maybe Loera was in the center of the hangar bay, where their secondary shuttle was located. He moved through into the medlab, double-checking for any signs of his XO. He slid rapidly down the next ladder towards the hanger bay, but when he arrived, he noticed that an eerie silence had fallen over the large space.
Douglass spotted the second shuttle and moved to enter it when he stopped dead in his tracks, and a cold feeling entered his stomach upon noticing that the container that had held the chestburster was now on its side near the shuttle's entrance.
He approached the container slowly, aware of the creature's natural ambush ability. He aimed at the container and with a quick flip of his foot turned it over to reveal it was empty, with a huge hole on its side. The hole itself appeared to be breaching outward, like an explosion had been produced from inside the container, or, more likely, like something had melted the hole into existence.
One of Douglass' short list of fears had been realized as his pulse quickened, and his mind went into action, drawing a quick conclusion – the beast had not only managed to wake up on its own from stasis, but it had freed itself and was now loose. It could have gotten anywhere at this point.
He checked the interior of the compact shuttle, patrolling for any sign of Loera or the xenomorph, for anything that could tip him off – a splash of blood, or maybe melted metal and plastic composites from the xenomorph's highly caustic bodily fluids.
He spotted a few stray droplets of human blood on the deck, and he knelt down to touch one with his fingertip, rubbing it between the tips of his finger and thumb. It was wet and warm, he noticed, so it was still fresh. He knew one thing at that point, Loera was wounded or even worse.
"Alright, David Tiberius, let's do this for Al…" Douglass said as he followed a trail of blood droplets, turning his walk into a jog of concern, with adrenaline threatening to overwhelm his system. He moved into the primary engine room, the massive engine blocks humming with idle process and mechanisms. He rounded the corner and aimed his pistol at the unknown before him.
He finally spotted a pair of legs, obviously belonging to Loera sticking out from a nearby corner. Douglass lowered his pistol slightly as he approached his XO.
"Al? Hey Al...'bout time I found…oh, fucking блять," Douglass started, but once he approached Loera his eyes rose in horror. Before him, Loera lay dead from a massive, deep slice across the throat, a large pool of blood already expanding next to his paling face, both eyes staring endlessly up at Douglass, the same as Stroman's back on the derelict.
Douglass crouched down next to him, Loera's pistol lying to his side with the slide locked back and the magazine totally empty. He had been a true Shark – he hadn't gone down without a fight.
Douglass bowed his head in slight remorse – he and Loera had been teammates even before the Sharkpack, and they had developed a strong friendship.
"Al...dammit," Douglass cursed, placing a hand gently on Loera's cold shoulder just as he heard the screeching of the young xenomorph nearby, and he recognized his objective.
"I'm sorry..." Douglass said as he closed Loera's eyes, and then he stood up slowly, gripping his sidearm tighter than ever.
"Rangers lead the way. Let's do this…" Douglass whispered a final goodbye to the fallen Loera as he moved toward the sound. He utilized all of his training, all of his years of experience learned from hard mistakes and tense lessons, moving around the corner, aiming his pistol at the first sign of trouble as he entered the engineering section to get to the ship's stores, where he figured the alien would have headed. It grew unbelievably fast, the reports indicated, and to grow, it needed nutrition, and that meant food.
"Come on, you bastard..." Douglass whispered. A stray bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as he heard what sounded like something heavy hitting the deck. He moved towards the sound, pulling out his flashlight and shining it towards the source of the sound. When he arrived, he lowered his weapon to see the remnants of an empty canister of quinitrocetylene, its contents pooling on the deck under one of the engine blocks. He smirked in slight relief, but in a split second the xenomorph flew past him, slicing his forearm with its razor sharp, talon-like hand.
Douglass grunted briefly in pain before turning and aiming at the xenomorph's presumed location; he looked down at his freshly sliced forearm now dripping blood like a boxer's broken nose. He looked up at the xenomorph, already five times the size it was prior, its growth pattern being expedited by unknown forces of its species' adaptive evolution.
It hadn't even eaten yet, and already it was growing very rapidly, and for a moment Douglass wondered what exactly it was able to draw nutrition from, if not conventional food. Maybe it could acquire nutrition from anything. Maybe its body found use for everything it consumed, wasting nothing. If that were the case, then it could draw astounding quantities of nutrients from a very small amount of consumed matter, whatever it might be.
For one brief moment he contemplated his sliced arm, counting himself extremely lucky that, against this species, he hadn't gotten much worse than that. Fresh rage warred within against his soldier's mind, but the soldier won out, forcing the rage to bend to his will, and he renewed his focus on containing the alien.
"Die, maláka!" Douglass said under his breath as he fired a few shots towards the beast, not to kill or wound it but to startle it, knowing full well that if he were to wound the beast its highly acidic blood would cause irreversible damage to the ship. At the same time, he knew he had to watch his shots so as not to harm his ship, and he figured the best plan was to trap the xenomorph and put it back into stasis.
Of course, there was no guarantee that he could contain the beast, but at the very least he needed to get it to go where he wanted it. The xenomorph dodged the first couple of shots with ease as the slide locked back on Douglass' pistol, and it jumped up onto the top of a maintenance ladder, hissing with disgust at his attempt to kill it.
"Yeah, you liked that, didn't you?" Douglass taunted it, but as he loaded a fresh magazine into his pistol and thumbed the slide release to chamber a round, the xenomorph in answer reared its head back and spat a stream of acid at him. He dodged it easily, laughing under his breath at the creature's bad aim.
"You missed, bastard..." He took aim again and fired a few stray rounds at the xenomorph's head; again, Douglass' strategy was not to wound or damage, but to herd the abomination, to make the xenomorph flee into a trap. Douglass heard the corrosive burning of the caustic spray from nearby, and he turned to notice the corrosive liquid rapidly melting away at one of the engine blocks behind him, causing it to sputter and die slowly, with sparks erupting from the engine into the pool of spilt QNC fuel below, igniting it in a mighty inferno.
"Oh, fuck…" Douglass dove out of the way as best he could, but the lower parts of his legs were quickly engulfed by flame, and he shouted briefly in pain. He grabbed a nearby rag and did his best to pat the flames out, but the damage was done and his legs were burned badly.
He rose as best he could, staggering to his feet as the xenomorph stood on the other end of the flame, angrily staring at the Sharkpack's commander with its eyeless, eel-like face, with its thirst for blood and an everlasting contempt for the man's existence.
Both man and beast parted ways as the engine block collapsed on itself, and small explosions erupted all around as Douglass slammed his hand on the bulkhead's emergency override. He limped as fast as he could as the ship shook.
"Jesus, Elvis and Murphy..." Douglass sighed, relieved. He moved, limping down the ship's corridors as fast as he could. Ahead, there was a MUTHUR comm node, and Douglass raced there as quickly as his burned and edematous legs could carry him and accessed it.
MUTHUR COMMAND NODE 3
AVAILABLE FOR INQUIRY
Douglass furiously typed a command.
STATUS? _
MUTHUR's answer was immediate.
ENGINE #2 DESTROYED...
ENGINE #1 DAMAGED...
FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEM NONFUNCTIONAL – SUPPRESSION COMPOUND EXHAUSTED...
PARTIAL FAILURE OF INERTIAL AND AUTOMATIC NAVIGATION SYSTEMS, PROJECT COMPLETE FAILURE IN SIXTY-SEVEN SECONDS….
"Damn!" Douglass cursed. Although he already knew the answer, he asked one more question.
RECOMMENDATIONS? _
ABANDON SHIP. ORDER ALL HANDS TO EMERGENCY ESCAPE VEHICLES.
Douglass didn't even bother to log out. He ran like hell as fast as he was able with his injuries towards a ladder, making his way back to the bridge as fast as he could.
Douglass went limping on his good leg to the bridge. The place was strangely quiet. He walked over to the communications console and activated it. A series of options appeared on the screen.
Douglass chose: Emergency Broadcasting System.
"Delta Tango 404, this is Commander Douglass, SCF registration number 519-A." he spoke hastily into the pickup. An explosion from below rocked the bridge, knocking Douglass off balance and causing him to stagger. "The crew is lost, and the ship has sustained considerable damage."
An alarm sounded and MUTHUR's voice filled the speakers. "Navigation failure, object ahead at twenty kilometers and closing – collision imminent. Catastrophic damage projected upon collision. All hands abandon ship, all hands abandon ship."
"Lexi," Douglass continued, "this is the Boss. Get off that ship." He didn't know if she was listening, but if she was she would be warned about what was coming. "Extensive engine damage, Costaguana is adrift and collision with Sulaco is imminent." He grabbed a spare submachine gun from a nearby weapons locker and limped painfully towards the nearest escape pod. He knew he had a few minutes before either the reactor would go critical or the Costaguana would plow into the warship ahead to break apart on impact.
The Costaguana shook and quivered, and Douglass moved into the escape pod. The pod was repurposed as a rapid strike ship, able to carry a small team.
Douglass took one last moment to look back for the xenomorph loose on the ship. He allowed himself a sad smile at the cruel irony of the situation. The team had sacrificed their morals and lives to capture the creature intact, and now he was about to blow it into oblivion.
He closed the airlock unceremoniously and quickly ordered the pod to jettison toward the colony below them. Fury 161 wasn't exactly a paradisiacal destination, but nonetheless it was better than the hell in orbit.
He strapped himself into a chair. Douglass took out a cigarette and lit it, taking a few puffs and smiling with relief. He had done all he could do, and from what he'd heard over the comm chatter broadcast by Kaufman, his people would be alright. They were the best at what they did, after all. They were the Sharkpack. There were none better. He escaped with his life, content with that knowledge.
He thought his next move, of course, would be to clean up the entire mess. He typed into the computer and recorded a new message:
"Delta Tango 404, this is Captain Douglass, SCF registration number 519-A," he started. "The Costaguana is lost, I'm the last survivor en route in an emergency escape vehicle to Fiorina "Fury" 161 work correctional facility. With any luck, the company will send someone to pick me up. This is David Tiberius Douglass, commander of the Costaguana, signing off."
He released the record button and thought about the team. Maybe they made it off the Sulaco...maybe. He triggered the beacon and launched the log buoy, then leaned back and relaxed.
Something wet fell on his right shoulder. He frowned, touching it. He felt the gelatinous substance slip through his fingers. His nose wrinkled in disgust, and then his heart began to race and his pupils dilated to their fullest. The realization came at the same time that a huge dark mass descended from somewhere above him.
His expression of horror changed to a blend of humor and grim resignation as he tightened his grip on the submachine gun and aimed it casually at the monster.
"You are one clever motherfucker, aren't you?" he smirked, for once not using a foreign language to swear, as he took a long drag on his cigarette and settled in. "Want one?"
The escape pod was ejected into space with a thud, away from the dying Costaguana and toward the prison colony below. A spray of red arterial blood spattered the single viewport.
—
"Give us strength, O Lord, to endure. We recognize that we are poor sinners in the hands of an angry God. Let the circle remain unbroken, until the Day. Amen."