Chapter 6: Alien Chess
Scarlet's life had returned to normal. Few dared to challenge the might of the legendary red queen, and those who did met with disastrous results and further strengthened the legend. One species, however, couldn't be daunted by such tales. There was one deadly, intelegent, and well-known species that knew nothing of Scarlet's no planet or how dangerous it was to be there.
A ship carrying such a species crashed on Scarlet's planet only a few months after the death of Masich. Hundreds of black shapes climbed out of the fiery wreckage, followed by a larger, even fiercer looking beast. The smoke cleared, revealing their identities: three hundred seventy-two warrior xenomorphs and one queen.
The queen hissed at her troops to begin building her hive. Ten warriors began scratching at the ground, spitting acid into the dirt to further dissolve it. They dug deeper and deeper, with thirty more xenomorphs ready to help establish the nest chamber when the tunnel was finished.
None of them were aware of who was watching them. A squad of Scarlet's aliens was sent to search the crash for hosts. The pack was shocked to find this new threat to the hive. If the aliens hadn't come with a queen, they would have been welcomed to Scarlet's hive. But there could only be one queen. Oddly enough, the opposing queen had a white portion of her crest. This wasn't a mutation like Scarlet's, but instead a normal genotype in the alien species, and a sure sign that there would be no chance of peace. The squad left to tell Scarlet of their discovery while the white queen's minions burrowed further into the ground.
Scarlet overheard the squad's story and began to deliberate what her move would be. Should she strike the opposing hive while they were digging? No, their numbers were too great. She would wait for the white queen to send her pawns out to gather hosts, then attack the squads. If the squads went missing, the white queen would send bigger squads to investigate. If she did that, Scarlet would send bigger squads to wipe out those squads, and so on until the white queen's hive was whittled down to nothing. Scarlet had the advantage: She knew the territory better and had many, many tricks up her sleeve.
The following morning went according to plan. Scarlet sent troops out to hide and ambush the white queen's scouts, which comprised of only drones and warriors. Scarlet won these battles without a single death, mainly because her soldiers consisted of more than just drones and warriors. The predaliens all returned much stronger than before, a good omen.
The next day went just as well, mainly because Scarlet had sent one ravager out with every group. The ravagers enjoyed this kind of fighting; aliens couldn't be facehugged, so Scarlet wasn't mad at them for killing their prey outright.
However, something had happened that Scarlet didn't expect. A drone, sent out to find food, accidentally stumbled on one of Scarlet's troops. The drone didn't recognize them and decided to return to his queen and report his finding.
The white queen now knew what had happened to her missing soldiers. She snarled in fury. Tomorrow she would send out one hundred of her troops to find the nest of her opponent.
Scarlet's first group of warriors exited the tunnel only to find one hundred warriors heading their way. The squad screamed in terror and ran back into the hive to tell and protect their red queen.
Scarlet snarled at the idea. Then she remembered her newest trick. She sent one of her drones up one of the hive's many other tunnels, the one that led to what was once Masich's ship. The drone told the aliens hiding in the ship to prepare for battle. The various xenomorphs looked out the hidden windows at the advancing alien army. This surprise troop waited for the white queen's army to disappear into the tunnel that led to Scarlet's hive. When that happened they would sneak out of the ship and into the very same tunnel, blocking the army's only escape route.
Five of the hundred xenomorphs that were sent by the white queen turned back; their mission was to find the nest and tell their queen of it, so in case the army that she sent didn't return she'd know take matters into her own hands. Though most of her hunting parties hadn't returned, the ones that did were very successful. As the 95 xenomorphs army descended into the gloom, the surprise army jumped out of their hiding spot and followed.
All day you could only hear the sound of screams, roars, and dying groans as the forces clashed in the hive. Scarlet's surprise army returned to their posts in Masich's lair, having lost only thirteen soldiers. Scarlet had won this battle with her cunning and superior forces, but she knew it wasn't over. She told Greenslash, her favorite ravager, to reposition the troops in whatever way he saw fit. This pleased the ravager, for while he wasn't good at recreating troops, he was good at making them more lethal.
The queen had thought out her move today very carefully. If Scarlet was able to set up her ambushes, that would have left her hive weaker and thus allowed the one hundred xenomorph army to wipe her out. If Scarlet fought the army, then the white queen's hunting parties would have been able to hunt successfully. By the tomorrow her troops would regain their original number, she would go out with them and confront her foe, fighting till only one army was left standing.
The white queen left early in the morning for the battle, her troops well rested. They marched through the forest, leaving fallen trees and other debris in their wake. Animals screamed in terror as they ran to escape the deadly army.
Scarlet stood very close to the front of her army, with only her ravager bodyguards in front of her. Drones and warriors hung from the ceiling, waiting to sneak attack the invading army from above.
At last the white queen entered the hive, safely in the center of her army. Ordered her soldiers to leave the other queen alone: she wanted to kill the bitch personally. As soon as the other army was in sight, Scarlet ordered her forces to charge. Scarlet did her best to ignore the cries of pain from her children as she charged into battle, her ravagers cutting through the opposing ranks towards the white queen. If she killed this opponent, then the battle would be practically over. Scarlet could see her surprise troops jumping into the battle, another good sign.
The hive was chaotic. The tunnel would have certainly collapsed if Scarlet's drones hadn't placed hive nodes all over it, covering it in acid proof alien spores. These spores healed Scarlet's brood during the battle, another advantage that Scarlet had over the opposing force. The white queen ordered all the xenomorphs behind her to come in front and block Scarlet's advance, only to find that the xenomorphs behind her were now corpses, replaced by Scarlet's surprise army. She now knew that she had lost. Scarlet made her way through the ranks at the shocked white queen, who was still gazing in dread at the unwelcome sight behind her. She turned around, only to have her head torn off by the red queen.
Checkmate.
A spaceship hovered above the planet, observing Scarlet's victory. The ship was filled with humans, including one very famous scientist. This scientist had pre-ordered the aliens that Masich had tried to create, and many years earlier had sent troops to capture a praetorian or queen alien from this very planet. Now he watched the prey that had eluded him so many times pass another one of his tests. He had sent the white queen to Scarlet's homeworld, and was now reassured by the battle that was occurring of her power. He laughed to himself and prepared his next move.