A/N: I know this idea might be clichéd but I'm more or less going to concentrate on Hive life and interactions. I know some people will find it interesting at least.
Disclaimer: Don't make me be redundant.
Running Amok
It was dark, of course on LV-1249 it was always dark. And it smelled like something that had been left in the fridge too long. That's how most newcomers described it, something that should have been thrown out a long time ago.
"Look lady, I don't like it here. Let's leave already." The man who spoke was a big guy. He had plates of armor on him and had a flamethrower over his shoulder.
"I can't leave yet." The woman said taking out a small brush and pulling moss from the wall. "This is an archeological site. I'm just doing my job."
"You know those bugs were sighted." He said, he was obviously nervous.
"They were sighted in the Western hemisphere, we're in the Eastern hemisphere. Besides this is a dead hive." A chunk of the wall she was cleaning fell off. "Oh, damn it."
There was a rustling to the side. The soldier jerked throwing his aim in its direction.
"Don't worry. This hive might be dead but it still reeks of its previous owners. The Xenomorphs wouldn't come in here if their lives depended on it. It smells like too many enemy." She used some poly-cement to replace the chunk. "Hope that sticks. I haven't copied any of it down." She set a tripod up before the cleared section of wall. It was covered in designs.
"Hurry up." The soldier said. He was sweating profusely under his armor.
"Relax." She flipped a switch on the tripod. Blue flashes covered the wall followed by red and yellow laser lights. Finally a steady white light illuminated the area and the tripod shut off. "Alright, let's go." She folded the tripod back up and hauled up her cleaning kit.
"Finally."
They tromped back to the bunker. Well he tromped, she was without any armor and merely walked. It was slow going though, the ground was really spongy out in this area. She half wished she got stuck down in the inner-caves with the others instead of out in the open where is smelled like yuck 24/7
"How much you get paid to do this shit?" The soldier asked.
"Well." She peered closer at the tag on his chest. "Bousster, I get paid enough. It's just a bonus that I like to do it."
Once inside she ran a hand through her short-cropped hair. Lice had been a problem not long ago they literally thrived down here. And they weren't Earth lice. Oh no, these were LV-1249 specialties that drew lots of blood.
"After that I'm getting some coffee." Bousster said. "What about you doc?"
"I'm not a 'doc', and no, I'm due in the labs."
Bousster had taken off his helmet and looked a little let down.
"Maybe later." She turned and walked off leaving him hanging. It didn't matter really, he would be gone at the end of this six-month tour and a whole new lot of the brutes would show up. She was just glad she wasn't the only female on base.
On her way to the labs she passed a door. This door, like so many others, was locked tight with a blaring 'DO NOT ENTER' sign on the front. She went on past is not really paying it any mind.
No one around here but newbies did anyway.
On the other side of the door was a dim room and the hum of computers. Electronic signals passed between sensors all along the walls. They skipped along wires and across circuitry beeping and tittering out information to other computers in other rooms all around.
Along with all this commotion, in each of over a dozen rooms stood cylinders of a nearly clear safety glass. Inside these cylinders were dark shapes that curled up on themselves like fetuses. Along with these cylinders were low boxy containers. Each about the size of a Xenomorph egg...
In the room the woman who had turned down Bousster had walked past the lights on the computer banks within flickered and died for a moment. The creature with its cryo-tank stirred. It flexed inside its watery tomb and struck at the prison walls.
A hairline crack appeared. Another strike and it stretched out in a spider web. Another hit and the spider web leaked. Another strike, the computer flickered again but then continued on, plexi-glass and thick liquids spilled to the ground throwing a dark spidery form down with it.
The alien unfolded its limbs and coiled its tail. Its head lifted cautiously and 'sniffed' the air. The pheromones had thinned but it still smelled of the HIVE. Its mouth opened wide to inhale more of the scent and it hissed softly.
It was surrounded by eggs but was not near the nursery, the Queen scent was too weak for that. It inspected the 'eggs' closer finding the ovum around it to be concealed. It dug a taloned hand along the lid of one container pulling it off. The scent of the egg told it the larvae still lived. It repeated the task until seven eggs were freed one was dead.
Its great curved head tilted and it stood up. A thin and gangly creature it was no Drone, but a Runner. It reached up a slender arm and ripped out the ventilation grate with an unperceived strength.
One thought permeated its mind: Find the HIVE.
* * *
"She turned you down?" Geiper asked putting his poor excuse for coffee down. "Man, she must be getting it on a regular basis to turn down a guy like that."
"If you ask me they have a regular orgy around here behind those red doors." That would be Himan, everyone had orgies but him.
"Both of you shove it. Maybe she does got a guy, who the hell knows." Bousster wasn't exactly a gentleman but he had some tact in his brain...somewhere.
"Man, this is a shit-job." Geiper said looking sourly down at his 'coffee'. "You heard the nest they found slaughtered half the troops before they finally bombed it?"
"Shit."
"No kidding. And here we are at ground-fucking-zero if we run across any."
"Hey, check the fly-boys." Himan pointed across the room distracting his comrade from his rant. Two men and a woman, indeed in flight suits, had just arrived. They glanced around the mess hall slowly finally pulling themselves up to an empty table and talking quietly.
"What are they doing here? We aren't scheduled for a drop for a month and those aren't the ones that brought us in." Geiper said lowering his head a bit. He never really liked pilots, they had always seemed real uppity to him.
"Not a clue."
There was a clatter behind them. They turned to see someone had dropped their tray. They relaxed finally noticing they had their hands on their guns. Unfortunately this action made them fail to notice the small yellow hand-like shape slide down the wall by the pilots.
The Face-Hugger scuttled away from the light into the dark sensing the presence of many hosts but it was too dangerous. It felt its way along the wall crawling into one of many small vents that were placed evenly around the room. It disappeared in search of more secluded prey.
* * *
"Hey, you seen Roster?" The woman who had just returned from the outside asked.
"Not a damn clue Tora." The man she had asked replied. He was bent over a microscope and spoke slowly as if it was too much trouble to think about the question.
'Tora' rolled her eyes. "That man, I swear, he tells me to hurry my ass then is late himself. What a jerk." She set her equipment on the table.
"That's Roster for you."
She leaned on the counter. Beside her something yellow flashed in the air vent. No one noticed. "If he's sleeping on the job again he's in trouble."
* * *
The Face-Hugger dangled from the open vent into the small closed compartment. Host/Prey pheromones filled the room. It felt its way to a small dark crevice and waited.
Not for long though. A man, a scientist by it's clothes, should the Hugger have even cared, entered hastily. He muttered something about being very late and sat down on his bed reaching under it, probably for shoes.
The Face-Hugger coiled its body feeling the heat and smelling its host so close. It heard noises and aimed for them. It sprang forward wrapping its fingers around a head and searching blindly for an opening.
The man tried to scream but was muffled. He fell to the floor, couldn't breath, couldn't see. After a moment the host fell quiet.
For a long time the Face-Hugger felt a surge of primal pride at having completed its function. Then it let the unconscious mans head go and crawled under the bed and died quietly.
* * *
The Runner crouched in the crawlspace 'watching' the Humans run around in the open area. It was well hidden in the dark, bright blue flashes marked where the other creatures stood.
It waited a moment more then turned back. Without the rest of the HIVE it would not attack all those intruders. It snaked its way through a small opening and stopped tasting the air. She was near.
It turned in the direction its Queen was being held passing an open vent. Inside came the mingled scent of friend and foe. The sounds of a struggling prey and cracking ribs echoed. A newborn.
The Runner paused and waited once more. It finally heard the squeals of a newly arisen drone. It hissed letting the young one know it was there.
The newborn squealed in return and sprang up into the shaft coiling around the Runners leg a moment. The adult had no food for the young creature that had been searching for live prey from the older one.
The Runner nudged the smaller creature back into the room towards the corpse that would provide energy for the coming change.
The Chest-Buster squealed and dived into the dead meat with enthusiasm. The Runner continued on.
It passed two more newborns and one Face-Hugger still in search of a host. Eventually the speedy alien stopped at the sound of beeping and tittering. It ripped its way into the semi-nursery smelling room finding a tube and many eggs around.
It opened the containers in the same fashion it had opened the others before. Then it turned its attentions to the imprisoned adult. This one was a larger bulky version of the runner, a Drone.
The Runner felt a hand over the computers around the room then thrashed them. The lights went out and the Drone shivered. It took fewer hits from the more powerful adult to escape but it hit the floor with less grace.
The two regarded each other a moment then touched the domes of their heads. They both smelled of the HIVE.
After the recognition was established they crawled into the open vent followed by eight yellow Face-Huggers.
* * *
Tora pounded on Rosters door. "Damn it Roster wake up! You were supposed to meet me in the labs an hour ago!" She hit the door again. Nothing. She knew he was in there. A guard at the end of the hall said he saw the scientist enter and never exit.
"Roster!" She screamed angrily and finally stormed away fuming.
Inside Michael Roster, or what was left of him lay on the floor. Blood and gore formed a trail from his mangled body up the wall and into the vents.
* * *
A tiny newborn scurried along the shaft coming across a hole that showed nothing but dirt at the end. It dropped down finding itself in a one-foot high crevice about seven feet deep.
Something moved. It struck. A rat met its fate to alien jaws.
It crept its way to the edge surveying its options. Not far away was a hole, an opening. In another direction was another place it might consider shedding in, but it seemed too open.
Finally the Chest-Buster scrambled across a small opening to the hole and crawled into it. The deeper it went the safer it felt. Until finally the creature came across an old part of the HIVE. It suddenly stopped moving and coiled up. Shedding took time.
* * *
"Hey Joe, that look like a break in the sequence to you?" A finger pointed to a gap a little larger than normal in the in-put/out-put in the containment sheds.
"Nah, not really." He paused. "But THAT looks like a god damn black out!"
"Oh shit!"
The break in the sequence was now followed by a flat-out absence of anything.
Joe picked up a comm-unit. "Call the commander, we have a breach, get someone down to Room Seventeen-Blue, now!"
"Copy that, what are we looking for?" A voice asked.
"Just get the fuck down there before I have your ass canned." The other person didn't bother responding.
"Christ, if even one of those things got out." The first man said.
"What the hell is going on Matherson?" A voice demanded as doors slid open.
"Commander Rivel, there's been a black-out in one of the containment rooms. I've sent in a team to check it out."
Rivels face darkened. "And the Queen?"
Matherson glanced sidelong at his partner while saying. "Checking her now sir."
The other man took his cue and brought up an image on the monitor of a great black monolithic creature. The Queens' head was down, her impressive crown fanned out above her as she slept. Her containment was still intact.
This seemed to set the older man at ease. "Keep me posted, search the compound for contaminants. If the company finds out their reserve stash of bugs is damaged they'll have our asses."
"Yes sir." The two chorused.
Disclaimer: Don't make me be redundant.
Running Amok
It was dark, of course on LV-1249 it was always dark. And it smelled like something that had been left in the fridge too long. That's how most newcomers described it, something that should have been thrown out a long time ago.
"Look lady, I don't like it here. Let's leave already." The man who spoke was a big guy. He had plates of armor on him and had a flamethrower over his shoulder.
"I can't leave yet." The woman said taking out a small brush and pulling moss from the wall. "This is an archeological site. I'm just doing my job."
"You know those bugs were sighted." He said, he was obviously nervous.
"They were sighted in the Western hemisphere, we're in the Eastern hemisphere. Besides this is a dead hive." A chunk of the wall she was cleaning fell off. "Oh, damn it."
There was a rustling to the side. The soldier jerked throwing his aim in its direction.
"Don't worry. This hive might be dead but it still reeks of its previous owners. The Xenomorphs wouldn't come in here if their lives depended on it. It smells like too many enemy." She used some poly-cement to replace the chunk. "Hope that sticks. I haven't copied any of it down." She set a tripod up before the cleared section of wall. It was covered in designs.
"Hurry up." The soldier said. He was sweating profusely under his armor.
"Relax." She flipped a switch on the tripod. Blue flashes covered the wall followed by red and yellow laser lights. Finally a steady white light illuminated the area and the tripod shut off. "Alright, let's go." She folded the tripod back up and hauled up her cleaning kit.
"Finally."
They tromped back to the bunker. Well he tromped, she was without any armor and merely walked. It was slow going though, the ground was really spongy out in this area. She half wished she got stuck down in the inner-caves with the others instead of out in the open where is smelled like yuck 24/7
"How much you get paid to do this shit?" The soldier asked.
"Well." She peered closer at the tag on his chest. "Bousster, I get paid enough. It's just a bonus that I like to do it."
Once inside she ran a hand through her short-cropped hair. Lice had been a problem not long ago they literally thrived down here. And they weren't Earth lice. Oh no, these were LV-1249 specialties that drew lots of blood.
"After that I'm getting some coffee." Bousster said. "What about you doc?"
"I'm not a 'doc', and no, I'm due in the labs."
Bousster had taken off his helmet and looked a little let down.
"Maybe later." She turned and walked off leaving him hanging. It didn't matter really, he would be gone at the end of this six-month tour and a whole new lot of the brutes would show up. She was just glad she wasn't the only female on base.
On her way to the labs she passed a door. This door, like so many others, was locked tight with a blaring 'DO NOT ENTER' sign on the front. She went on past is not really paying it any mind.
No one around here but newbies did anyway.
On the other side of the door was a dim room and the hum of computers. Electronic signals passed between sensors all along the walls. They skipped along wires and across circuitry beeping and tittering out information to other computers in other rooms all around.
Along with all this commotion, in each of over a dozen rooms stood cylinders of a nearly clear safety glass. Inside these cylinders were dark shapes that curled up on themselves like fetuses. Along with these cylinders were low boxy containers. Each about the size of a Xenomorph egg...
In the room the woman who had turned down Bousster had walked past the lights on the computer banks within flickered and died for a moment. The creature with its cryo-tank stirred. It flexed inside its watery tomb and struck at the prison walls.
A hairline crack appeared. Another strike and it stretched out in a spider web. Another hit and the spider web leaked. Another strike, the computer flickered again but then continued on, plexi-glass and thick liquids spilled to the ground throwing a dark spidery form down with it.
The alien unfolded its limbs and coiled its tail. Its head lifted cautiously and 'sniffed' the air. The pheromones had thinned but it still smelled of the HIVE. Its mouth opened wide to inhale more of the scent and it hissed softly.
It was surrounded by eggs but was not near the nursery, the Queen scent was too weak for that. It inspected the 'eggs' closer finding the ovum around it to be concealed. It dug a taloned hand along the lid of one container pulling it off. The scent of the egg told it the larvae still lived. It repeated the task until seven eggs were freed one was dead.
Its great curved head tilted and it stood up. A thin and gangly creature it was no Drone, but a Runner. It reached up a slender arm and ripped out the ventilation grate with an unperceived strength.
One thought permeated its mind: Find the HIVE.
* * *
"She turned you down?" Geiper asked putting his poor excuse for coffee down. "Man, she must be getting it on a regular basis to turn down a guy like that."
"If you ask me they have a regular orgy around here behind those red doors." That would be Himan, everyone had orgies but him.
"Both of you shove it. Maybe she does got a guy, who the hell knows." Bousster wasn't exactly a gentleman but he had some tact in his brain...somewhere.
"Man, this is a shit-job." Geiper said looking sourly down at his 'coffee'. "You heard the nest they found slaughtered half the troops before they finally bombed it?"
"Shit."
"No kidding. And here we are at ground-fucking-zero if we run across any."
"Hey, check the fly-boys." Himan pointed across the room distracting his comrade from his rant. Two men and a woman, indeed in flight suits, had just arrived. They glanced around the mess hall slowly finally pulling themselves up to an empty table and talking quietly.
"What are they doing here? We aren't scheduled for a drop for a month and those aren't the ones that brought us in." Geiper said lowering his head a bit. He never really liked pilots, they had always seemed real uppity to him.
"Not a clue."
There was a clatter behind them. They turned to see someone had dropped their tray. They relaxed finally noticing they had their hands on their guns. Unfortunately this action made them fail to notice the small yellow hand-like shape slide down the wall by the pilots.
The Face-Hugger scuttled away from the light into the dark sensing the presence of many hosts but it was too dangerous. It felt its way along the wall crawling into one of many small vents that were placed evenly around the room. It disappeared in search of more secluded prey.
* * *
"Hey, you seen Roster?" The woman who had just returned from the outside asked.
"Not a damn clue Tora." The man she had asked replied. He was bent over a microscope and spoke slowly as if it was too much trouble to think about the question.
'Tora' rolled her eyes. "That man, I swear, he tells me to hurry my ass then is late himself. What a jerk." She set her equipment on the table.
"That's Roster for you."
She leaned on the counter. Beside her something yellow flashed in the air vent. No one noticed. "If he's sleeping on the job again he's in trouble."
* * *
The Face-Hugger dangled from the open vent into the small closed compartment. Host/Prey pheromones filled the room. It felt its way to a small dark crevice and waited.
Not for long though. A man, a scientist by it's clothes, should the Hugger have even cared, entered hastily. He muttered something about being very late and sat down on his bed reaching under it, probably for shoes.
The Face-Hugger coiled its body feeling the heat and smelling its host so close. It heard noises and aimed for them. It sprang forward wrapping its fingers around a head and searching blindly for an opening.
The man tried to scream but was muffled. He fell to the floor, couldn't breath, couldn't see. After a moment the host fell quiet.
For a long time the Face-Hugger felt a surge of primal pride at having completed its function. Then it let the unconscious mans head go and crawled under the bed and died quietly.
* * *
The Runner crouched in the crawlspace 'watching' the Humans run around in the open area. It was well hidden in the dark, bright blue flashes marked where the other creatures stood.
It waited a moment more then turned back. Without the rest of the HIVE it would not attack all those intruders. It snaked its way through a small opening and stopped tasting the air. She was near.
It turned in the direction its Queen was being held passing an open vent. Inside came the mingled scent of friend and foe. The sounds of a struggling prey and cracking ribs echoed. A newborn.
The Runner paused and waited once more. It finally heard the squeals of a newly arisen drone. It hissed letting the young one know it was there.
The newborn squealed in return and sprang up into the shaft coiling around the Runners leg a moment. The adult had no food for the young creature that had been searching for live prey from the older one.
The Runner nudged the smaller creature back into the room towards the corpse that would provide energy for the coming change.
The Chest-Buster squealed and dived into the dead meat with enthusiasm. The Runner continued on.
It passed two more newborns and one Face-Hugger still in search of a host. Eventually the speedy alien stopped at the sound of beeping and tittering. It ripped its way into the semi-nursery smelling room finding a tube and many eggs around.
It opened the containers in the same fashion it had opened the others before. Then it turned its attentions to the imprisoned adult. This one was a larger bulky version of the runner, a Drone.
The Runner felt a hand over the computers around the room then thrashed them. The lights went out and the Drone shivered. It took fewer hits from the more powerful adult to escape but it hit the floor with less grace.
The two regarded each other a moment then touched the domes of their heads. They both smelled of the HIVE.
After the recognition was established they crawled into the open vent followed by eight yellow Face-Huggers.
* * *
Tora pounded on Rosters door. "Damn it Roster wake up! You were supposed to meet me in the labs an hour ago!" She hit the door again. Nothing. She knew he was in there. A guard at the end of the hall said he saw the scientist enter and never exit.
"Roster!" She screamed angrily and finally stormed away fuming.
Inside Michael Roster, or what was left of him lay on the floor. Blood and gore formed a trail from his mangled body up the wall and into the vents.
* * *
A tiny newborn scurried along the shaft coming across a hole that showed nothing but dirt at the end. It dropped down finding itself in a one-foot high crevice about seven feet deep.
Something moved. It struck. A rat met its fate to alien jaws.
It crept its way to the edge surveying its options. Not far away was a hole, an opening. In another direction was another place it might consider shedding in, but it seemed too open.
Finally the Chest-Buster scrambled across a small opening to the hole and crawled into it. The deeper it went the safer it felt. Until finally the creature came across an old part of the HIVE. It suddenly stopped moving and coiled up. Shedding took time.
* * *
"Hey Joe, that look like a break in the sequence to you?" A finger pointed to a gap a little larger than normal in the in-put/out-put in the containment sheds.
"Nah, not really." He paused. "But THAT looks like a god damn black out!"
"Oh shit!"
The break in the sequence was now followed by a flat-out absence of anything.
Joe picked up a comm-unit. "Call the commander, we have a breach, get someone down to Room Seventeen-Blue, now!"
"Copy that, what are we looking for?" A voice asked.
"Just get the fuck down there before I have your ass canned." The other person didn't bother responding.
"Christ, if even one of those things got out." The first man said.
"What the hell is going on Matherson?" A voice demanded as doors slid open.
"Commander Rivel, there's been a black-out in one of the containment rooms. I've sent in a team to check it out."
Rivels face darkened. "And the Queen?"
Matherson glanced sidelong at his partner while saying. "Checking her now sir."
The other man took his cue and brought up an image on the monitor of a great black monolithic creature. The Queens' head was down, her impressive crown fanned out above her as she slept. Her containment was still intact.
This seemed to set the older man at ease. "Keep me posted, search the compound for contaminants. If the company finds out their reserve stash of bugs is damaged they'll have our asses."
"Yes sir." The two chorused.