Chapter 37: Branching out.

The next few weeks and months were a blur of motion for Clan Mason, Jack and Tik were driving for not only expansion but for securing what was theirs.

Colony ships were constructed in the Clan's mighty shipyards and once complete they were stocked with volunteers who wished to be a part of the start of a new chapter of the Clan.

The first stage had been to cluster bomb the two planets in their system with Xeno eggs after the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch had given the go-ahead for them to use chest burster's for the first tie in a long time, this unleashed especially bio programmed face-huggers onto those worlds who then sought out what would be considered useful species among the fauna.

As always they were specifically instructed to utterly ignore any sentient race they came across as even though surveys and deep scans had revealed none the Clan never took a chance when the lives of potential innocents were on the line.

The result of the Xeno seeding as it had become known were totally new and never before seen subgenus of Xenos, like four-armed and two-legged climbing Xeno, these were the same size as a Praetorian but had four huge arms and huge muscled legs, they were capable of climbing even the trickiest of terrain and were strong enough to tear trees right out of the ground.

Then there were the aquatic Xenos, formed by birthing from a form of Dolphin on one of the planets, these Xeno's could breathe both air and water and instead of their usual legs and tail had a large finned tail which when combined with their torpedo-like body gave them incredible manoeuvrability in the water which allowed them to seek out resources on the sea bed.

But the most fearsome and by far the largest of all of them was something everyone began referring to as the Dragon Xeno.

Infact when Jack had first laid eyes on the four of them he could help but commend the bravery and sheer balls of the little face-huggers that had managed to bring the beats that birthed them down, in fact, it had become a running joke in the Clan that the little face-huggers hadn't jumped on them as the sheer weight of their balls would have made it impossible but instead had simply used said balls to club the creatures unconscious before impregnating them.

But the results were utterly breathtaking, for one they weren't the usual jet black of their brothers and sisters, they were a mixture of silver and gold, they were the same size as a queen and were quadrupedal much like runners.

They had huge leathery wings sat upon their back allowing them to take to the skies oh and they could either breathe fire or breath clouds of gas like acid which simply dissolved anything caught inside it.

They were also all female, Jack and Tik had decided that these would be their colony guards, two were shipped to the other world to await the arrival of the colonists and it became a kind of Xeno shuffle as the Clan moved Xenos from world to world to ensure that they had both a mixture of hunting, protecting and gathering Xenos on each.

Under instructions from their queens, these Xenos had also begun construction of their hives which act as a safe zone for the colony to be set up next to as Xeno hives tended to drive any predatory fauna away with its sheer presence, though to be fair when the colonists had arrived and found two queen-sized Dragon Xeno's guarding their new home it became debatable whether it was the hives scaring the shit out of the local animals.

Though just like every other Xeno in the Clan every one of these new arrivals was as sentient as any other, they had the same thoughts and feelings as anyone, human, Yautja, Raptorian, Scalathor etc, they were treated like anyone else.

Jack and Tik also stepped up their deep space patrols, sending small groups of ships out into the depths of space not only to gather intelligence about what was out there but also to locate other sentient races and also resources for the Clan to use.

In preparation for the day when this would become necessary, Jack had begun training his Seekers to operate as covert operators, working either on their own or as part of small teams, Tik had been doing the same with her Hunters though for her she had a head start with the Yautja as they were already well versed in operating and hunting solo on millions of different worlds throughout the cosmos.

These little teams were sent out with the specific instructions not to engage unless absolutely necessary but to infiltrate and report back to the Clan what they found.

They weren't just looking for enemy activity however, a part of their mission was to see where Clan Mason could assist people, both jack and Tik knew that hearts and minds were just as important as military muscle.

For them if word began to spread through the universe of the good works of Clan Mason, of how they protected and helped those in need then they would truly earn the title of Guardians which they had named the Clan's military whole all those years ago, now it was up to them to prove that they were worthy of that self-appointed title.

Sela eleth had insisted on sending her Saviours into this fray as well, which given that the Saviours were an incredibly diverse bunch was not a bad idea really, they were an incredibly smart bunch with a great many specialists like combat engineers among their numbers.

So it was agreed that the Saviours would partake in this mission as well, though Sela had conceded allowing her teams to be attacked to Hunter squads to ensure their protection, while the Saviours could hold their own in a fight, they were not as well versed in the combat arts as her mother's Hunters so the two made a good team.

So as these teams began to venture out into the unforgiving void from the relative safety of the Clan homeworld intel began to flow back into the Clan, this intel was then sifted through and disseminated among the various branches of the Guardian core as well as it's allies, filtering through to both the Serpentinus and Raptorians who over these months had increased their presence within Clan Mason with a great man packs and prides moving to the homeworld and also to their new colony worlds to become part of the Clan proper.

This even went as far as both species allowing its members who were granted full Clan membership to join the Guardian core, with some becoming Hunters, Saviours and even one or two becoming Seekers.

Though the vast majority of Dream Warriors discovered among both races while trained by the Seekers were returned to their homeworld to form their own version of the Seekers of Truth on their own soil, in fact, the Ghost Slithers that had travelled to the Seeker temple were treated as returning heroes when they finally slithered back upon their home soil and took their rightful place among their people finally.

Though one or two chose to stay in Clan Mason and were made full Clan members.

On Raptoria the High Priestess pride had become responsible for seeking out Dream Warriors among their numbers and what they discovered actually shocked the Raptorians to their very core, for over eighty-five per cent of all the Dream Warriors they found and sent for training at the temple, were male.

It warmed jack's heart to see these little male Raptorians change and grow on Clan Mason's homeworld, from the little frightened boy that stepped foot off the shuttle ramp frightened of his own shadow and amazed by a world without a ceiling above his head, into confident and powerful warriors capable of going toe to claw with even the biggest of Yautja girls.

Infact there was something quite satisfying in seeing a Raptorian male sparing with a Yautja girl only to see him launch her and throw her around the ring like she weighed no more than his own feathers.

The males they sent back to their home were not the frightened boys that set foot on the planet all those months ago, they were proud men.

Proud and noble sons of Raptoria, ready to stand alongside their sisters and to defend what was there from any and all who would ever try to take it from them again.

Apparently, these warrior boys were rather popular among the Raptorian girls with many stories filtering back to the Clan of the lengths some prides were going to to try and catch the eyes of these men.

One such story made Jack chuckle and warmed his heart like waking up to finding Tik smiling down at him in the morning sun.

Apparently, a pride of amorous Surface Stalkers had gone out onto the surface on their patrol and had each picked and created a bouquet of exotic flowers only found in some of the most dangerous areas of the Raptorian surface, just to give to this lucky guy as a token of their affection and hopes towards him, apparently, it had worked and he was now a very happy pride male.

Then some stories were not so happy, like the Clan's first encounter with humanity among the stars, that had not gone so well...

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"Ok people listen up, here are the morning patrol routes, there's a hell of a lot of debris in this system so pay attention to your sensors, I seriously do not want to be scraping your arse's off an asteroid to ship back home in a box, I seriously think the Grand Patriarch and Matriarch have had enough funerals lately," flight leader Serval said.

Xipa Longclaw cocked her domed head as she looked at her datapad that showed her and her wingman's route, it seemed they had been tasked with surveying the fifth planet in the rather large system which had no less than six gas giants.

It was an incredibly densely populated system planet wise which was to be expected given the size of its sun, the gravity well was holding a fair bit of debris from planets destroyed millions of years ago in its orbit, it was like the system had held a planetary royal rumble and the fifteen that were currently orbiting were the winners.

The losers had been turned into incredibly dense but also mineral-rich asteroid fields that snaked and wove themselves between the planets creating almost impassible areas of space, infact that was the whole reason the flight wing was being dispatched in the first place.

The cruiser she had been assigned to was called the Clan's Pride and she was one of the newest cruiser classes to roll out of the Clan Mason shipyards, designed to have the firepower of a pocket battleship with the manoeuvrability of a cruiser, she was based off the design of the Dreamer with a few upgrades here and there, like bigger hanger bays to hold a couple of combat fighter wings for instance.

"Alright people you got your instructions so head down to the hanger bay and mount up, remember this is a simple sweep mission, if you encounter hostile forces do not engage unless you are engaged, call it in and return to Clan's Pride for support, alright dismissed," flight leader Serval said and with that the huge Yautja male clicked off the holographic display and turned to leave.

Xipa couldn't help but sigh heavily as she watched him leave, he was such a pretty specimen of his race, big and broad with rippling muscles all over him that simply begged her claws to explore and made her tail swish with want.

She'd always had a thing for the Yautja boys, most of her kind seemed to fawn over the humans of Clan Mason but for Xipa the Yautja boys were the ones who made her head turn and her tail swish, there was just something about them, they just brimmed with quiet confidence and barely restrained power that it made her mouth water just thinking about them.

Suddenly a hand slapped down on her shoulder making her jump so violently she threw her pad into the air where it was promptly snatched out of the air by a red gloved hand.

"Girl you might not have eyes like mine but if you stare at his arse any harder you're going to burn a second hole in it," a brash human voice said and Xipa looked up to see her wingman stood there grinning at her.

Lisa Elliot had been Xipa's friend for as long as she could remember, they had grown up side by side, played together, gone to school together, laughed, cried and lived at one another's side and now they carried their sister's safety in the hands of each other as they flew together as part of the CMN or Clan Mason Navy as Saviour fighter pilots.

Xipa chuckled softly as she felt her hide warm with a blush she knew her human best friend's eyes couldn't see.

"Well it's not my fault he has an arse so fine I just want to take a bite out of it," she said and Lisa roared with laughter clapping her on the shoulder again.

"Well you're shit out of luck there sis, he got mate hunted about two weeks ago, got caught by a human girl called Mary from C squad of the Hunters" Lisa said gently rubbing her friend's shoulder in consolation.

Xipa sighed heavily and nodded, "I know, I'm kicking myself for not signing up, but I was just too scared you know? there was no way in hell I'd ever be able to catch one like him so what's the point?"

"Hey now! Enough of that talk, you're a damn fine looking Xeno girl and any Yautja boy worth his salt would be gushing with pride to have you at his side" Lisa said trying to cheer her up, it worked somewhat but Xipa had always had this nagging feeling that she was not good enough despite her best efforts she always felt she was lacking somehow.

"Come one let's get out there, being at the helm always cheers you up so let's go burn some space shall we?" Lisa said with a bright smile which seemed to lift Xipa's mood, her friend always seemed to know how to get under her skin and pull her out of a slump.

The pair of them head down to the hanger bay stopping to change into the flight pressure suits in the locker rooms before heading into the main hanger.

The place was like a huge metal cave, it was nothing like the hanger on the Grand Matriarch's Fury which was like a miniature city inside a cave, but it was pretty big and was full of life.

The Saviour engineers were running around like a swarm of yellow suited bees, they were crawling all over the new fighters that the Clan's Pride had been launched with, Xipa had been aching for a chance to take one of these bad boys out for a spin.

They were called Drakes and the new bombers that had were called Reapers.

Xipa couldn't help but feel a swell of pride when she saw something new come out of her hive, as she looked up at her brand new Drake heavy fighter she felt her heart leap in her chest as she admired the sleek beautiful lines.

The Drake had been designed to operate in both atmosphere and space equally while balancing both stealth and firepower, the metal they were made from absorbed all known sensors while they also were equipped with Yautja cloaking systems.

On the firepower side of things they were equipped with a 20mm chaingun mounted in the nose, a series of anti-fighter munition warhead missiles which were basically a flying rocket-powered shotgun that detonated short of its target sending a cloud of high-speed metal ball bearings at incredible speed towards its target.

Then there was the Drake's party piece, the combined plasma and railgun all points defence system, there was a pair of swivel arms one on the top and one in the belly, they were fitted with six barreled miniguns that could attack targets and defend the craft from attack from near all sides, it was designed to take on the role of both CWIS and attacking any target all at once.

The craft itself was shaped like a flying wing to give it a very low profile both visually and from sensors making them harder to see and to attack, it really was a thing of real beauty.

Xipa looked up at the board and saw that she was assigned to Drake six and she turned around to see the Drake sitting in bay six being checked over by the engineers, it had a blue '6' on its wingtips.

As Xipa approached a large Yautja female stood up and turned around to look at her, "He good to go?" Xipa asked and the Yautja drew her mandibles up into a smile.

"Yup, he's a beast this one, those brothers and sisters of yours really are good at this shit, it's a joy to work on," she said wiping her huge hands on an oily rag.

Xipa ran her hand over the smooth matte tiles, "Yeah he's a work of art" Xipa said.

"Yeah well look after him out there I really don't want to be buffing scratches out of that big sexy ass ok?" the engineer said and Xipa laughed and nodded.

She pulled her helmet on over the domed head and clipped the tubes and control cables into the ports on her suit, it instantly the suit pressurized and she felt it begin squeezing her limbs and body parts which would help keep her blood in her organs where it was needed.

Once she climbed up over the hull and dropped into the pilot's seat and began strapping herself into the seat, no sooner had her arse hit the chair than her augmented reality HUD lit up and began displaying the consoles.

The Drake's systems were incredibly smart using the next generation of bio-link quantum processing that her hive had begun pumping out, this stuff was incredible, it used the same principle that Xeno hives used to solve problems, networking.

This computer could not only link to all the others around it but to their pilots as well, the special helmets that the pilots wore literally made them part of the network and they were utterly unaware of it on a conscious level but it was also a two-way street, while it used a small part of the problem solving and calculating power of their collective brainpower the system offset this by speeding up their reactions and enhancing their awareness, the result was a system that grew smarter the more linked into the network.

The canopy of the Drake was made utterly out of metal to protect the pilot instead the augmented reality system in Xipa's helmet hooked into hundreds of external cameras that gave the illusion that she had an utterly unobstructed view outside in every direction.

"This is Stingray I'm greenlit over here, ready to proceed on run zero zero eight," Xipa said into the comms to flight control giving her a call sign so they would light her up on the board.

"Roger that Stingray, just waiting on your wingman and your patrol will be a go" the flight controller responded.

"This is Burnout I'm greenlit over here and ready to go," Lisa's voice said over the comms.

"Roger that Burnout, patrol zero zero eight is greenlit to go, moving you to the launch area, please wait," the controller said just before a sudden jolt shook Xipa's Drake.

The bay platform her Drake was sat on began to moved forwards along tracks that moved it into the centre of the hanger facing the exit shield, on her left Drake three which was Lisa's Drake was moving to form upon her wing.

"Stingray and Burnout confirmed for launch, five...four...three...two...one, launch, good luck out there girls stay safe," the controller said before the Drake's controls unlocked and a huge sensation of thrust pushed Xipa back into her seat as the Drake's mighty engines propelled her through the shields and out into the endless black.

Once her Drake's controls switched from auto to manual Xipa took the stick and gave her wings a tip to signal to the control tower a successful launch and switch to manual, both the and Lisa turned and began burning into the system.

"Oh wow, no matter how many times I see this sight it never fails to take my breath away," Lisa said over the local comms.

Xipa looked out at the shimmering planets and their brilliant rainbow of colours, "Yeah it truly is incredible isn't it?" she replied.

"Ok, which one is ours? The fifth one in isn't it?" Lisa asked and Xipa nodded despite knowing her friend couldn't see her.

"Yeah that would make it the little red one" she replied.

"Ok roger that let's set a course, we gotta pass through no fewer than ten asteroid clusters and belts to get there, no wonder they didn't want to bring the Clan Pride in here, even with those shield's she'd get chewed up like Kobah root," Lisa said just as Xipa's collision warnings lit up to inform her of the multiple small objects around the ship.

"Better raise shields, we can forget about stealth fields in here we're going to need every drop of power for the shields or it'll be us getting chewed up," she said and a blue glimmer around her friend's Drake indicated that she'd done just that.

Thankfully the Drake's were made to be incredibly nimble and manoeuvrable so as long as they kept their wits about them they'd make it through fine, though it did require a constant level of concentration to ensure they got through.

'Think we're going to lose comms in here, I'm getting a lot of bounce back signals" Lisa said suddenly and Xipa checked her comms transponders and instantly realised she was right.

"We'd better start dropping beacons, it might slow things down but at least with them there's at least there's a chance the Clan's Pride will hear us," Xipa said flipping a switch which caused a dull thump to sound through her cockpit as a small comms relay beacon fired out of a hidden tube on the rear of the Drake.

No sooner had it deployed than the comms system lit up green again and her bounce back signals decreased,

It went on like this for a couple of hours it took to reach the little red planet, but eventually they reached it and began to orbit it conducting scans that would reveal both mineral contents and any organic lifeforms that were present.

"It's a big ball of dust, I'm not seeing fuck all down there," Lisa said suddenly making Xipa jump.

"Yeah, plenty of minerals but fuck all else" she replied.

"Oh well, just two more passes and we can head for home, a nice shower and then we can get down to our real job of boy watching in the mess hall and you can go back to wishing you were a barbell that one of the Yautja boys is lifting in the gym," Lisa said playfully and Xipa snorted.

"Hey! I don't wish I was a barbell! I wish I was a thigh curl machine at least get it right" Xipa shot back and her wingman roared with laughter.

"Great now I'm going to be stuck with that mental image all night, thanks for that," she said and now it was Xipa's turn to laugh.

"You're welcome," she said and no sooner had the words left her vocal processor than her sensor system lit up like a freedom day tree.

"Hold on got a contact, bearing zero five one, it's big whatever it is," Xipa said trying to bring her Drake's sensors to bear on it.

"Probably just another iron-rich asteroid tricking our sensors into thinking we got a Scalathor battleship up our tailpipes again," Lisa said.

"No this isn't an asteroid, it's moving on an erratic pattern like it's dodging the asteroids, here hang on sending you the sensor reads," Xipa said transmitting her sensor data to Lisa's Drake.

"Hey yeah I think you're right, that movement pattern is intelligent, not random, let's check it out," Lisa said.

"Yeah, I'm just transmitting the data to the Clan Pride, ok done let's go," Xipa said as she sent the data into the relay network, then the pair turned and broke orbit heading for the coordinates of the sensor mark.

As they drew closer they instantly noticed that the marker seemed to be in orbit of what appeared to be a moon, readings from the dark blue coloured planetoid were off the charts and were sending her sensors crazy.

"Fuck are you getting the same interference as me? Either the planet is utterly loaded to the gills with minerals or there's some kind of jamming system at work here" Lisa said and her voice was crackling as the comms system to cut through the interference.

"Yeah not sure if it's natural or not I can't get a...whoa fuck!" Xipa exclaimed as she had a near-miss with a series of small micro meteors which showed up on her sensors at the very last second.

To her left she saw Lisa pulling a vertical climb and a roll doing the same evasive manoeuvres, as her body pulled G's she felt her suit constricting and squeezing her like she was a giant living tube of tusk paste, it was trying to keep her blood where it was needed and t stop her passing out.

A sharp bang and a sparkle to her right indicated that at least one hit her shields, this was accompanied by alarm klaxon's that informed her that her shields were being impacted and losing power.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Xipa yelled dodging and dancing around trying to avoid the near-invisible projectiles and as good as she was she couldn't avoid them all.

"Stingray get out of there!" Lisa yelled as Xipa fought and weaved dancing her ship like a ballerina on ice, her thruster jets were flaring all over the place but there were just too many.

"Fuck this! I'm deploying countermeasures!" Xipa yelled and she flicked her weapons online.

No sooner had she hit the switch than both the belly of her ship and the back of it opened and out of it rose the railguns which were now set into plasma CWIS mode, the pair began firing in all directions at the incoming micro meteors.

The superheated bolts of plasma began to vaporise the incoming balls of rock and metal before they collided with the ship, but it also made her incredibly visible, her Drake had basically become a flying firework display in space.

That's also when they caught the attention of the sensor blip which changed course to intercept and before she knew it a huge ship which while smaller than the Clan Pride just simply appeared in front of them.

As she flew out of the cloud of micro meteors Xipa found herself staring down a cruiser sized ship, alarms were still blaring inside her cockpit warning her that her shields were almost depleted and that she was now being targeted by both laser and radar pings.

"Holy ship it's a fucking ship! How the fuck did they get that in here!?" Lisa exclaimed in her comms still crackling due to the interference, that's when her comms picked up another signal.

"Unidentified craft this is the USSMC Hammer, you have entered restricted space, power down your vessel and prepare to be brought aboard," the male-sounding voice said in perfect English.

"Holy shit did you hear that? They either know English or those people are human!" Lisa exclaimed.

"Yeah and by the sound of it they haven't detected you yet, deploy your stealth field and stay out of sight," Xipa said.

"But..." Lisa began.

"No buts Burnout, if shit goes sideways I need you to be able to call in the Clan Pride," Xipa said in a stern voice, she heard her friend grumbling but then her ship vanished from sight as she deployed her cloak.

Xipa attuned her comms to the frequency the alien ship had used and she opened the channel, "USSMC Hammer this is Stingray of the CMN Clan's Pride stand down your weapons we bear you no ill intent, we are merely on a survey mission in this system over" she said in her best diplomatic voice.

"Ship calling itself Stingray this is the USSMC Hammer I repeat power down your weapons system and your ship and prepare to be brought aboard for questioning regarding your presence here in claimed space" the voice replied.

Xipa growled to herself, rule number one of being a pilot was never let your ship get captured by the enemy, "That's a negative USSMC Hammer I apologise if we have trespassed in your space as we were unaware of any claim on it due to a lack of warning beacons, I will depart the system but I will not submit to any form of interrogation or inspection as I am not a subject of your species and do not recognise your authority over me over" Xipa said.

Suddenly her incoming projectile warnings lit up and two shots of what looked like railgun fire shot past her in close proximity, they were warning shots, Xipa armed her weapon systems.

"Ship calling itself Stingray that was your last warning, power down and submit to being brought aboard or we will open fire upon you, this is your final warning," the voice said.

Xipa switched channels, "Burnout get back to the Clan's Pride and transmit this data to them," she said.

"Stingray I can't leave you!" Lisa's voice wailed through her headset.

"Someone needs to warn the Clan! Go now Please!" Xipa yelled and with that, she burned tail drawing the attention away from her friend to ensure that if she had to switch out of stealth to avoid the micro meteors who wouldn't be spotted.

No sooner had she began moving than the Hammer opened fire sending high-velocity shots her way, it seemed that their targeting computers weren't a patch on those of Clan Mason but the gunner was good all the same as more than one shot grazed her recharging shields.

Xipa returned fire trying to target their weapons systems, but it also seemed that they had figured out that shooting right her was pointless as she was way too fast and nimble to hit with conventional fire, so they began targeting any close-by asteroids.

This blew huge chunks out of them sending a spray of stone chips like buckshot or birdshot in all directions and this in turn began colliding with her shields, Xipa knew she couldn't retreat through the outer ring of debris because she would be a sitting duck for their big guns, her openly chance was to knock out enough of their guns that she'd be able to make her escape.

But fate has a funny sense of humour sometimes, a huge blat off her port side sent debris spewing into her like a cloud of death, it utterly obliterated her shields, he also lost her top and bottom gimbal arms as alarms screamed.

Xipa took evasive action and with a last desperate move, she fired off her payload of missiles at the Hammer just as another shot hit a huge asteroid behind her sending hypervelocity debris right into the back of her Drake crippling her engines, all she had now were manoeuvring thrusters and only they were all over the hull.

Her Drake was crippled and there was only one chance left for her now, it appeared her missiles had done their job and had utterly crippled the Hammer's big guns, Xipa aimed the Drake at the planet and pumped everything she had into the thrusters.

"Prepare to execute no trace protocol on my mark," Xipa said and the computer lit up asking her if she was sure.

"Confirm, execute protocol, mark!" Xipa yelled and the system shut down.

There was a roar followed by the incredible sensation of being crushed into the seat as the canopy of the drake blew off and she was propelled outwards and upwards into the thin atmosphere still strapped to her ejector seat.

Below her she saw the Drake push itself away from her on its thrusters before its drive system detonated utterly vaporising the ship leaving barely any debris behind, Xipa's heart pounded like a Jackhammer in her chest as she fell towards the plant's surface, in the distance she swore she could see little twinkling lights, did this species have an outpost on the surface?

There was a roar and a whoosh above her and with a jolt that felt like the hand of the Goddess herself had reached down and scooped her up Xipa's parachute deployed and slowed her fall, her breathing sounded like a storm in her helmet as she began to drift down towards the surface, she was in hostile territory without any support, it was every pilot's worst nightmare.

It turned out they must have been tracking her fall somehow because no sooner had her seat hit the ground and she struggled to release herself from the straps she heard the roar of fast-approaching vehicles.

Xipa barely had enough time to pull herself clear of the seat and the collapsed chute before for her night vision picked out six six wheeled vehicles bumping along the rocky almost volcanic terrain ahead of her.

Pulling her self defence weapon and pack from the seat Xipa whirled around to look which way was best to try and run but the terrain was utterly flat in every single direction, it was like being stood on a giant chessboard, there was utterly nowhere to hide in this place, she was fucked.

The vehicles pulled up around her in a circle and she instantly saw large turret guns spinning to aim at her before people began spilling out of the back of them dressed in totally black combat pressure suits much like the one she was wearing.

To her utter surprise, there were all human-shaped and sized and Xipa turned in a circle slowly raising her hands to show her surrender, there was no point getting herself killed here, all she had to do was wait until the Clan came for her because she knew without a single doubt that they would come and when they did they'd make these faux humans pay for this.

One of the creatures approached her and to her surprise written on her chest and she was blatantly female by her body shape clearly visible through her tight white pressure suit was a logo written in English.

'Weyland Yutani' it said and Xipa looked at her, unable to see her through the mirrored faceplate of her helmet.

"I surrender," Xipa said in perfect English.

The white-suited creature seemed taken aback by this and she looked around herself then focused on Xipa, "You can speak our language?" she said.

"I could say the same thing to you," Xipa said bitterly.

This seemed to irritate the woman, "Take its weapons and get it in the wagon, we'll put it with the others of its kind, Dr Tanner is going to love this, we've never seen a talking one before let alone one that can pilot a ship, oh we are going to learn so much here, it actually makes me glad to have been sent to this fucking dustball" the woman said and before Xipa could reply a group stepped forwards and snatched her weapon from her hands as well as her pack from her back.

They yanked her hands down and locked them into two large metal manacles which also seemed to lock her tail in place as well, the one holding her gun started turning it over in his hands, "I wouldn't do that if I was you" Xipa said and the male looked up before ignoring her and aiming the weapon away into the distance and pulling the trigger.

Instantly he dropped to the ground convulsing as electricity arced through him, "Initiate no trace protocol zero one execute" Xipa said.

The gun suddenly leapt into the air like it had a spring hidden in the butt and exploded in a huge ball of blue plasma making all of them dive for cover as tiny pieces of shrapnel rained down on you, Xipa turned her head towards the woman in white who was laid head down in the dust.

"You won't get anything from me that I swear on my soul" she snarled darkly.

The woman stood up and dusted herself off, "We shall see" she said and with a gesture to the other Xipa was roughly pushed towards the wagon.