Chapter 21
A/N: Hello and welcome to the next chapter of Universal DOOM! It's been a while since I updated this story, you know, with the whole 'Slayer getting sidetracked in the HALO universe' thing, and while it was nice to have a little vacation, it's time to get back to it. For this chapter, I've decided to bring the Slayer to the surprisingly expansive universe of the Xenomorphs, deciding that it was time that some of the most dangerous hunters in cinema finally get hunted for once. Remember that I do not own any of these characters, and enjoy!
...
Ellen Ripley frowned and examined Call. That girl was supposed to be dead. Wren had shot her in the chest, and humans didn't walk away from shit like that easily, and they certainly didn't stand back up a few minutes after. Now, she turned her back to them, trying her best to evade the inquisitive looks from the rest of the group.
"I'm fine," Call said annoyedly. Ripley stepped closer to the girl and furrowed her brow even further at her evasiveness. Something was off.
"You got body armor on or something?" Distephano asked, looking Call up and down with suspicion.
"Yeah, now come on guys, we gotta get out of here!" Call said, seemingly eager to change the topic of discussion.
"You took one in the chest," Ripley said. "I saw it."
Call turned and looked at her, giving Ripley a look that seemed apprehensive and pleading at the same time. Ripley met her gaze for a moment, then opened the girl's jacket and examined the entry wound where she had been shot. The hole was massive. Any normal human would be hemorrhaging from a wound like that. Narrowing her eyes, Ripley pressed two of her fingers into the gaping wound, and immediately felt a foamy sensation from the inside. Withdrawing her hand, Ripley examined the fluid on her fingers. It was a combination of what appeared to be lubricating oil as well as a few other compounds that she didn't recognize. Whatever it was, it wasn't blood. Ripley should know, considering that she was the only one present who had ever died before. She had seen her fair share.
Ripley snorted in a combination of disbelief and humor. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"You're a robot?" she asked, meeting Call's fearful gaze.
"Well, son of a bitch! Our little Call is just full of surprises, isn't she?" Johner whooped, pacing back and forth with a shit-eating grin on his face. Ripley had lost count of how many times she'd wanted to wipe that stupid grin off with a punch today.
"I thought synthetics were supposed to be all logical and shit, but you're just a big ol' psycho, girl!" Johner continued.
"You're…you're a robot?" Purvis asked from his leaning position against the wall. The man's apparently natural nervousness seemed to increase at the news, but Ripley attributed it more to his recent discovery of a Xenomorph growing inside him. That had been enough to put her on edge a lifetime ago, so she could say with confidence that she understood his skittish demeanor.
"Wait, you're second gen, aren't you?" Distephano asked, looking Call up and down once more with interest. "That means you're an Auton, right? Robots designed by robots! That's right, I remember now! Your model was supposed to revitalize the synthetic industry. Instead, they buried it!"
Distephano grinned as he continued, nodding in Ripley's direction enthusiastically. "Heh, they didn't like being told what to do…"
Ripley looked over at the Marine, raising an eyebrow skeptically at his untimely ebullience.
"The government ordered a recall, and I heard that a few, just a few, had gotten out intact! MAN! I never thought I'd see one with my own eyes!"
"Great," Purvis said, eager to change the subject. "But can we please leave now?"
Their conversation was immediately cut off by a loud bang that came from just outside the door. In a heartbeat, every weapon they had was drawn and leveled in the direction of the noise. Knowing their luck, it had likely come from one of the numerous Xenomorphs that now hunted them throughout the ship. There was a moment of silence, then the door in front of them was forced open, a figure in what appeared to be a space suit of some kind stepping through.
Ripley frowned again. Just how many more surprises was she to expect today? The armor or suit or whatever the thing was wearing didn't look like anything she had seen before, but that being said, she had been dead for over two-hundred years. Much can change since then. There was a moment of tense silence, Johner, Distephano, and Vriess all keeping their weapons trained on the figure. The figure glanced at each of them in turn. Its expression was unreadable behind the tinted faceplate that it wore, but Ripley noticed with a small amount of discomfort that its gaze lingered on her, Call, and Purvis much longer than the others. The figure then spoke.
"Hello," came its voice from a speaker on the helmet. "I am VEGA. While I am not the man inside this suit, I am an A.I. that interfaces with him. You may address him as the Doom Slayer."
Distephano looked over uncertainly at Ripley, then turned back to the figure, his gun did not lower.
"Uh, ok? Where the hell did you come from?"
"I would be happy to tell you, but it is unlikely that you will believe me."
"Oh yeah?" Johner taunted, both of his pistols aligned with this 'Doom Slayer's' faceplate. "Try us."
"The two of us arrived here from another dimension. Our destination was not predetermined, but we are fortunate to have arrived onboard your ship instead of the vacuum of space."
"Bullshit!" Johner growled. "How the hell are we supposed to believe you?"
The Doom Slayer tilted his visor toward Johner in a threatening manner, and Ripley saw the man shift uncomfortably out of the corner of her eye. She smirked at the sight, thinking maybe this guy wasn't so bad.
"Unfortunately, there is no way for us to prove our story," the voice replied calmly from the armor. "However, during our conversation, I have interfaced with the systems onboard your ship, the Auriga. While I am uncertain of the details, it seems as though the ship itself is in critical condition, and I detect a number of unknown lifeforms onboard as well. While video feed is minimal, I believe it is safe to assume that these lifeforms are hostile. Am I correct?"
Distephano chortled. "In a nutshell, yeah. That's sums it up pretty well. But there's also a mad doctor trying to kill us and steal our ticket out of here."
Ripley nodded, turning back to the issue at hand. They couldn't afford not to trust this new figure, as they didn't have much time left before the Auriga arrived back on Earth. For now, they had to focus on getting off this damn hunk of metal. They could deal with the Doom Slayer and his A.I. spokesman later. She turned to the others and spoke as everyone slowly lowered their weapons, all seemingly getting the same idea.
"If Wren gets access to the ship's network, he could really screw us. We need to get to get access before he does and shut him out."
"There's no consoles on this level, though," Distephano said contemplatively. "And without Wren's access codes, we can't get through most of the areas since the ship is on lockdown."
Ripley thought for a moment, then turned her attention to Call, an idea forming in her mind.
"Call…"
"No," Call said, shaking her head fervently. "I can't…"
"Wait, yeah!" Johner said. "You're the latest model! You can access the mainframe remotely!"
"No," Call said, her voice shaking. "I burnt my modem, we all did. Wireless access is impossible for me."
Ripley narrowed her eyes at the girl again. For a droid, she wasn't very good at concealing her emotions. Her excuses for being unable to access the mainframe almost seemed to come from a fear of doing so. Was she even programmed to feel fear?
"Call," Vreiss said, his voice gentle from his seated position against the wall. "You can still jack in manually. You know that."
"That will not be necessary," came the voice of the A.I. in the armor. What was its name, again? Vegan or something?
"I am able to wirelessly interface with the mainframe of the ship and have already shut down any access terminals nearby. The Auriga's A.I. attempted to halt my progress, but I have suppressed him for now. I have also read all of the documentation of the experiments conducted on this ship. Many of these documents refer to creatures called Xenomorphs, and I can assume that those are the unidentified signatures I'm reading?"
"Bingo," Ripley said, placing a hand on her hip bemusedly. "You know, you're pretty sharp for an A.I."
"Thank you, Ellen Ripley," the voice replied courteously, and Ripley stiffened at the A.I.'s knowledge of her name. The A.I. seemed to notice this and spoke again.
"I have gone over all the documentation regarding you as well. You are a clone of the original Ellen Ripley, but due to the presence of the Xenomorph embryo within you at the time you were sampled, a few alterations were found in your genetic code. That explains why I have been reading irregular signatures from your body."
Now it was Ripley's turn to shift uncomfortably. She didn't exactly feel keen on having this A.I. know every little detail about her.
"Glad to see you're caught up," she said shortly. "But now, we need a way to exterminate those Xenomorphs before this ship docks back on Earth. I don't suppose you or your silent buddy there have a way of handling that.
In response to her question, the Doom Slayer suddenly pulled a shotgun seemingly from his ass and held it in his hands. Pumping the shotgun, the Doom Slayer tilted his head upward toward Ripley, his gesture somehow possessing an air of confidence to it despite the fact that he had yet to say a word.
Johner laughed next to her. "I gotta say, I'm starting to like this guy! I think him and I are going to get along just fine!"
He quieted down again under the Doom Slayer's gaze, and VEGA chose that moment to speak up once again.
"You can leave the extermination to the Doom Slayer. However, our priority at the moment should be getting you all safely off this ship. From the data logs, it appears that there is a small vessel in the hangar bay that is capable of escaping.
"That's the Betty," Johner confirmed with a nod. "If you can get us there, then we can get off this ship and away from those nightmares!"
Suddenly, Purvis began convulsing next to them, his breath suddenly coming in short rasps as he leaned back against the wall for support. In a heartbeat, Johner and Distephano had their weapons trained on him as he clutched his midsection. Ripley watched him carefully, expecting his chest to burst open with a newborn Xenomorph at any time.
Purvis convulsed a few more times, then he slowly began to relax, his breathing returning to normal levels and his body slumping against the wall.
"I'm…I'm fine," he said with a deep breath. "I'm ok. I'm ok, really."
Johner and Distephano both eyed him warily, then slowly lowered their firearms.
"Whatever your plan is to get us out of here, VEGA, we better move fast. This guy ain't got much time left, and we got to get him to a stasis pod before he explodes."
"I agree," VEGA replied, causing Purvis to shoot them all a horrified glare. "I am bringing the Betty's engines online now, as well as opening any remaining doors between our location and the hangar."
As VEGA spoke, one of the nearby doors opened at his command. Ripley smirked and shook her head at the sight. For the first time today, something seemed to be going right.
"Gotta hand it to you, big guy," she said addressing the Doom Slayer. "Your A.I. is versatile."
The Doom Slayer said nothing, but turned and gave Ripley a nod in agreement.
…
Wren angrily punched the console. None of his access codes appeared to be working, and he was growing more and more frustrated with it by the minute.
"Father," Wren said aloud, calling out to the ship's A.I. "I have lost power to every console I've come across. Analyze and respond."
Silence echoed throughout the halls.
"Father?"
"I apologize, Dr. Wren," came a sudden voice from the intercom that Wren did not recognize. "But I have reason to believe that you are attempting to work against us. I have deactivated Father as a result."
"What?! Who is this?" Wren demanded.
"I would answer, Dr. Wren," but there are Xenomorphs en route to your position. It is my suggestion that you relocate yourself if you wish to survive."
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who the hell you are!" Wren shouted indignantly, his voice echoing throughout the halls of the Auriga.
The only response came from a blood-chilling hiss from Wren's left side. His eyes snapped open in fear of the familiar noise, but before he could turn to aim his weapon, a nightmarish creature pounced on him and tore at his body. All Wren could do in response was scream as his blood splattered against the walls.
…
Ripley hesitated for a brief moment, her connection to the Xenomorph hivemind giving her reason to pause as she felt a distinct shift in her neural connection. Her reaction had not gone unnoticed by the Doom Slayer, and he turned his helmet toward her. She saw her reflection in his visor and waved her hand dismissively. Even though VEGA had done all of the talking so far, Ripley could tell that the Doom Slayer was no dummy. There appeared to be nothing that he could not see, one of which was Ripley's connection to the Xenomorph queen. At that moment, the group was traversing down the passageways towards the hangar, with the Slayer taking point. Vreiss was strapped to his armored back, and the paraplegic mechanic coughed once and spoke up as the Slayer turned his gaze away from Ripley.
"So uh, Doom Slayer guy, you don't really talk much, do you?"
The Doom Slayer said nothing.
"Right…so, VEGA, do you speak for him?"
"I do not speak for the Doom Slayer," VEGA said. "While I do speak on behalf of both of us at times, the Doom Slayer is more than capable of communicating when he deems it necessary."
"So, let me ask you then," Vreiss said, talking over his shoulder from the Doom Slayer's back. "You really think you can kill all of these alien bastards by yourself? No offense, but you've never fought these things before, and they can kill even an armored guy like you pretty easily if they get the drop on you."
As expected, the Doom Slayer said nothing. Instead, he reached behind himself and snatched Vreiss's weapon out of his hands. Ignoring the cripple's protests, the Slayer grasped both ends of the makeshift gun and snapped it in half with a loud crack, stunning everyone in the group at the display. The weapon itself had not been slender by any accounts, and Ripley consciously noted that she would need nothing short of a hydraulic press to achieve what the Slayer had done with his own two hands.
Reaching back behind himself, the Slayer returned the two weapon pieces to Vreiss, whose shock quickly turned to anger at seeing his homemade weapon now rendered useless.
"What the fuck?! You could've just pried open a door or something! You know how hard it was to make that thing from scratch? I was digging through parts for weeks!"
Johner and Distephano laughed heartily at Vreiss's turmoil, and Johner tossed one of his pistols to the whining man.
"But it wouldn't have gotten his point across nearly as well, eh Vreiss?" he said through his chuckling.
"To build off of the substantial evidence already provided by the Doom Slayer," VEGA said. "I have studied the numerous files on this ship relating to the Xenomorphs. Their anatomy, as well as behavior and intelligence, classify them as parasitic in nature. Though this instance might be different, the Doom Slayer has had a large number of altercations with similar enemies in the past. I am confident that we will be able to exterminate them swiftly and efficiently."
"Wait," Call said. "You mean you've encountered something worse than these things?"
Purvis walked next to her, and Ripley saw him glance nervously from Call to the Doom Slayer like VEGA's answer was to decide the fate of the universe.
"It is too early to say for certain, but I would say yes based on my calculations."
Ripley couldn't help but enjoy the charisma radiating from the pair as VEGA spoke. The Doom Slayer was the strong but silent type, with extra emphasis on the strong part, and VEGA was an A.I. that could carry on a conversation better than most humans, portraying a calm and collected demeanor at all times that Ripley enjoyed immensely given the grim nature of their current situation. Looking back, however, Ripley saw that some of the group was not as comforted as she was. Call in particular. Feeling a tug in her gut, Ripley fell back and into stride with the Auton, who spared her a glance before turning her gaze to the floor again.
"How's your wound?" Ripley asked, trying to seem as gentle as possible despite their difference in height by almost a foot.
Call shrugged and hunched her shoulders, but Ripley saw her just barely wince at the motion.
"Let's see it," she said, reaching out to her.
"Don't touch me," Call said, recoiling.
"Oh, stop it," Ripley said sternly, and Call relented this time as she inspected the wound. It was large to be sure, and a few miscellaneous composite materials hung free from the gaping hole. As they continued to walk down the halls, Ripley did her best to clean the wound, removing as much stray material as possible so that there were no lose pieces remaining. Call looked at her curiously as she worked.
"How can you keep on living, knowing what you are?" she asked suddenly. Ripley looked up at her, not knowing if Call was referring to her status as a clone of the original Ripley or the fact that she shared DNA with killer space aliens. Deciding that it was probably a little bit of both, Ripley gave a small smile.
"Don't really have much of a choice, do I?" she asked.
"Yes, you do," Call replied, and Ripley smirked at the implication despite its morbidity.
"I gave the whole dying thing a try about 200 years ago," she said. "Lot of good that did me, huh?"
To her satisfaction, Call actually let out a small laugh, and Ripley laughed along with her. It felt good. Call's face then dropped once more.
"At least part of you is human. I'm just… well look at me. I'm disgusting."
Ripley placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her head.
"I don't know if you've noticed, kiddo, but non-humans are kind of winning the day right now."
Ripley gestured towards the Doom Slayer and by extension VEGA. Call followed the gesture, then sighed.
"That's just one example…"
"Could be two," Ripley said with a shrug. "In fact, I'm betting its two because I seriously doubt that someone with a name like 'The Doom Slayer' could be a human."
Call smiled again and lifted her chin up, her posture displaying a bit more confidence at Ripley's words. Then it was gone again, but this time, it was replaced with a look of terror. Ripley frowned and followed her gaze.
They had reached the hangar at last, VEGA's manipulation of the mainframe allowing them to make excellent time through the halls. Ahead loomed the Betty, her lights on and her engines already ignited thanks to VEGA. There existed only one problem, however. Between their small group and the ship, half a dozen full-grown Xenomorphs appeared, their blackened skin and feral postures giving them an extremely intimidating look as they turned and noticed the group approaching.
Seeing that the pack had picked them out, the group came to a stop, not wanting to get any closer than what was necessary to the nightmarish creatures. Ripley frowned at seeing them all here. How could they have possibly known how to find the group? With a start, she realized that her neural connection to the queen must have been a two-way street, the mother of the Xenomorphs having been in her head and deducing their plans.
Shit.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ripley saw the Doom Slayer remove Vreiss from his back and set him down against the wall. With an audible crunching of metal and composite, the Doom Slayer produced his shotgun once more and pumped a round into the chamber.
"The Xenomorphs have highly acidic blood," came VEGA's voice. "I suggest that we utilize a weapon that will minimize blood splatter in this scenario."
Ripley barely noticed, but the Doom Slayer almost seemed dejected at VEGA's words. Putting his shotgun away, Ripley saw him exchange it for another weapon that she didn't recognize. The weapon was not much larger than a shotgun, but it was almost futuristic in design, giving a clean and bright look that contrasted the Slayer's dark green armor. The Doom Slayer never took his gaze from the Xenomorphs as they hissed at the approaching group, but he gestured over his shoulder to Distephano and Johner before making a shooting gesture.
"We'll cover your back, big guy," Distephano replied confidently as he swung his weapon from his shoulder and leveled it towards the aliens. Johner grunted in agreement.
Without any further warning, the Doom Slayer charged into the hanger, startling the members of the group as well as the Xenomorphs present in the chamber.
Crossing the distance at a speed that shouldn't have been possible, Ripley's eyes widened as the Doom Slayer lowered his shoulder and barreled through the closest two aliens. The creatures screeched in agony and were sent airborne by the force of his strike, but the Doom Slayer was unfazed. The two aliens he hit landed on the ground with a sickening crunch, the force of the Doom Slayer's impact shattering most of their bones. Though they were still alive, the Doom Slayer had already turned his attention from them, raising his strange-looking rifle and opening fire on the third Xenomorph.
A stream of what looked like plasma rounds burst from the rifle, and the targeted Xenomorph screamed as the rounds burned through its skin like lava, immediately cauterizing every hole that they made. Under the Slayer's continued fire, the Xenomorph pitched sideways and died as its wounds became too great. The sudden death of their comrade seemed to spur the other Xenomorphs into action, and they all roared and lunged for their humanoid opponent.
As the first one reached out with its long claws, the Slayer put away his plasma rifle and intercepted the creature, smashing both of his fists on either side of the Xenomorph's head. The weight behind his blows caused the creature's skull to crumple, and grey matter and blood squirted from the top of the Xenomorph's head as its skull caved in. The creature died before it even hit the ground.
As the Slayer rounded on the two standing Xenomorphs left, a barrage of shots rang out and tore through the aliens, both Distephano and Johner firing their weapons at their designated targets. The Xenomorphs screeched in agony, but a few well-placed headshots dropped them shortly after.
After sparing an appreciative glance in their direction, the Slayer returned to the two Xenomorphs he had hit with his shoulder. The aliens screeched in agony and tried to swipe at him, but their broken bodies refused to comply, leaving them writhing on the ground as they struggled to right themselves.
Without hesitation, the Doom Slayer brought his boot down hard onto the first Xenomorph's neck, and with a loud pop, the alien's head detached from its body, rolling across the floor of the hangar to rest against the wall. The creature's headless body fell still.
The remaining Xenomorph gave an enraged screech in the Slayer's direction, but the extra noise did little to intimidate the armored man, and with a sickening rip, the Slayer had torn the tip of the alien's tail off. The alien cried out in pain, but its suffering was quickly cut short as the Slayer took the sharpened tip of the tail and drove it deep into the creature's skull, causing it to go limp immediately.
The group gaped at him as he scanned for more opponents but found none. With a start, Ripley realized that the Slayer had killed six Xenomorphs in less than a minute, with half of them killed with just his bare hands.
"Jesus Christ," mumbled Johner as the Slayer beckoned them over, the abrasive man finally at a loss for words. Ripley tried to savor the experience as much as she could.
"Now where the hell do I learn to do something like that?" Distephano said as the group converged on the Doom Slayer. As they all gathered around him, Ripley noted with a chuckle that she and the Doom Slayer stood at roughly the same height, but when he was in battle, the Slayer almost appeared to be larger than life, his overwhelming strength and agility giving him an intimidating aura for all that witnessed it.
"The Betty is fueled and ready for immediate extraction," came VEGA's voice. "I suggest everyone depart as quickly as possible. The Doom Slayer and I will cover your escape."
"W—wait a minute!" Purvis said. "What about you? What are you going to do once you've cleared out the Xenomorphs?"
"Once the infestation is cleared, the Doom Slayer and I will make a jump to the next dimension. Our destination will again be at random, but we must continue to do so if we can hope to return to our original dimension."
"So, this is goodbye then?" Call said, her voice betraying a regretful tone.
"Well, well! Aren't you just a fuckin' softie!" Johner laughed, slapping Call on the back.
"To answer your question, Annalee Call: Yes, I believe this is goodbye," VEGA said.
Everyone shared a brief moment of silence, then Distephano stepped forward and offered his hand to the Doom Slayer, who grasped it in an armored gauntlet and shook firmly.
"You saved our bacon even though you never met us before," he said with a nod. "That means something to me. Thank you."
He then turned and boarded the Betty, and everyone took their turn saying goodbye to VEGA and the Doom Slayer, Johner and Vreiss cracking jokes about his strength while Purvis and Call gave an apprehensive thanks before hastily climbing aboard.
Ripley was the last one, and as the Slayer turned toward her expectantly, she shook her head and gave him a smile.
"I've been through a lot recently, but you already know that. You read my file after all."
Neither the Slayer nor VEGA said anything, giving Ripley a chance to continue.
"That being said, I'm glad you boys showed up to lend a hand. Without your timely arrival, who knows what could have happened to us."
Her tone then took a more serious route, and she looked directly into the Doom Slayer's visor as she continued.
"These creatures, I've dealt with them before. My memory is still fuzzy in some parts, but I remember eventually dying thanks to them. So, I guess the biggest thing I can say is: Be careful. I can still feel my connection to their queen, and while I don't know exactly what she's up to, I can tell she's getting ready for something, almost in anticipation. But she's…she's also in pain."
Her gaze went vacant for a moment as she homed in on the queen, but she caught herself and refocused, the Doom Slayer giving her a nod as she finished.
"Thank you for your warning, Ellen Ripley," VEGA said through the armor. "I have detected an enigmatic signature nearby, and I believe it is safe to assume that it is the queen. We will approach with caution once you all get clear."
Ripley gave a smile in thanks, then she shook hands with the Doom Slayer before she climbed on board the Betty. With a final nod, the hatch closed behind her, and she watched from a nearby viewing port as Vreiss began the ignition sequence. As the Betty left the hangar, Ripley watched the Auriga grow smaller, and in turn, her connection to the queen began to weaken as well. Soon, it became so small that she barely even noticed it, leaving only her own thoughts in her head for the first time.
…
VEGA multitasked as the Slayer jogged through the abandoned halls of the Auriga. A myriad of blueprints, experiment logs, and anatomic data passed through his gaze simultaneously, the A.I. taking full advantage of the new information offered to him by this universe. The experimental logs on the Xenomorphs, while being highly unethical, were fascinating to VEGA, as the A.I. experienced an emotion similar to excitement at delving into the new data. His experiences with Ellen Ripley had also offered him insight to the deadly creatures, as the United Systems Military had also experimented on her as well. She had been the eighth attempt at the cloning process, with six of the other seven dying during their genesis. The remaining one was listed as still alive in the records, but VEGA detected no heat signatures apart from the remaining Xenomorphs on board the ship. That number was decreasing fast, however, as the Doom Slayer hunted them down with great prejudice. In addition to the Xenomorphs, VEGA also noted that many 'Face Hugger' eggs, as they had been named by the USM, were still alive throughout the ship. Those were disposed of just as easily.
Before long, only two heat signatures remained, their presence drawing the Doom Slayer into the very deepest part of the ship as he angrily ripped a Xenomorph's jawed tongue from its mouth. VEGA expected the Xenomorph queen to be waiting for them as they continued. As the Doom Slayer approached their final destination, VEGA noted that while one of the two remaining life forces appeared to be growing stronger, the other was growing weaker. In fact, the two signatures were almost linked to each other, and while VEGA formed hundreds of theories on the subject, once stood out above the rest. All he required now was visual confirmation.
The Doom Slayer rounded another corner, and VEGA finally laid 'eyes' on the Xenomorph queen. This Xenomorph was much larger than others and possessed a much larger head that spanned outward into flat edges. Immediately, VEGA noted that the queen was immobile, and that a large flesh capsule of sorts bulged from her lower body. Seeing the sack firsthand, VEGA confirmed his theory: This Xenomorph queen had been birthed using the DNA of Ellen Ripley, and just as Ripley herself possessed Xenomorph traits, the reverse was true as well. This alien had evolved to accommodate a human-like reproductive in addition to laying the numerous eggs that the Slayer had been destroying. The creature inside the flesh sack was a result of the additional reproduction process and had been the secondary life force that VEGA had been monitoring.
The queen had not noticed the Slayer has he stepped into the large chamber, as at that moment the flesh sac connected to her began to pulse and move about wildly, the creature inside beginning the process of birth.
The queen roared in pain as the birthing process continued, the flesh sac bulging out further and further until it finally ruptured. Another roar sounded, mixing with the queen's roars of agonized birthing, and before the Doom Slayer emerged a Xenomorph that was vastly different than the ones that they'd encountered so far.
VEGA immediately analyzed the new creature, its stark white skin in definite contrast to the common darker hue of standard Xenomorphs. It's bone structure and physical features varied greatly as well, VEGA noticing that the creature's anatomy was a mixture of Xenomorph and human commonalities. Lastly, VEGA analyzed the roar that the creature sounded as it emerged from the 'womb' of the queen. Its vocal patterns were mostly Xenomorph, but as VEGA quickly realized, the frequency of its voice possessed a greater variety. A variety matched only by the vocal cords found in a human. With all of this information, VEGA's theory was even further solidified. This new creature was an exact hybrid of human and Xenomorph DNA, both genomes combining to create an entirely new species.
The creature turned at the trumpeting of its mother's call, the queen's screeches of agony taking on a higher pitch associated with connection and familiarity. VEGA anticipated such a reaction, as one of the gene sets that Ripley had passed on to the Xenomorph queen had been that of maternal instincts. The queen no doubt felt a deep bond with her newborn, and the hybrid leaned in closely as its mother inspected it. The two shared a moment of familiarity, once again matching VEGA's prediction. Now came the ambiguous part. The new hybrid Xenomorph possessed the imprinting genes of the aliens, which caused certain animals to immediately identify and accept their maternal figures, but it also possessed the genes associated with mammals in which a familiarization period would be necessary before it accepted its parent. The question that remained was which would prevail.
With a trumpeting cry, the newborn attacked its mother, tearing at her flesh with incredibly sharp claws and strength that combined humanity and Xenomorphs. Green blood spurted from the mother's wounds, and her cries of agony began anew as her child rejected her violently. Slowly her life force died, leaving only the hybrid behind. It was then that it noticed the Doom Slayer for the first time.
In his programming, VEGA registered a very human-like relaxation in the hybrid's posture as it examined the armored figure. The creature felt an innate sense of familiarity with the Doom Slayer, and VEGA now knew exactly why. The creature had retained the Xenomorph behavior of imprinting, but upon mixing the human and alien DNA, it had given the creature a warped instinct. Instead of imprinting on the physical features of a Xenomorph, it imprinted on the stature of a human, which in turn made it instantly recognize the Doom Slayer as a possible candidate for its mother. The Doom Slayer seemed almost as intrigued as VEGA was, and he held his shotgun in a relaxed manner as the hybrid came closer, its breathing slow and controlled.
For a moment, VEGA entertained the possibility that a full imprinting had occurred, but as the massive hybrid drew close enough to make out distinct features on the Slayer's armor, its expression suddenly hardened again. With an enraged roar, the newborn immediately adopted a hostile approach to the Slayer, and VEGA remembered that a full imprinting could only occur if the individual possessed the common traits of the female of the species. As the Slayer had none, the hybrid had failed to fully imprint, and now it lunged for the Slayer with the same ill intent that it had previously shown its mother.
In a flash, the shotgun was up, and there existed hardly a fraction of a second before the weapon kicked in the Slayer's hands. The hybrid's skull exploded from the blast, and its body tumbled to the floor a moment later, its life ending just as quickly as it had begun. With the last life force extinguished, the Auriga fell silent. The dead air lingering throughout the corridors.
For a moment, silence reigned, then VEGA spoke directly to the Doom Slayer through the Praetor Suit.
"The ship is set to dock on Earth in less than an hour. Given the nature of these experiments and how they began, it is my recommendation that we destroy the Auriga before it returns home. It would be wise to erase all evidence of the project so that it cannot be repeated.
The Doom Slayer did not respond, but VEGA knew him well enough to see that he agreed. All that was left was to somehow start a chain reaction that would be enough to destroy the entire ship. Of all the weapons the Doom Slayer possessed, only one of them was capable of delivering the firepower they needed to start that chain reaction.
The Doom Slayer pulled out the BFG and made his way to the ship's core. No one witnessed the events that followed, but if they had, they'd describe a bright flash of green light erupting from the center of the ship, followed by a series of explosions that tore the vessel to pieces. After the smoke and fire faded away, one might have been able to catch a glimpse of a much smaller flash of blue light before all fell still once again.
A/N: And scene! As many of you have probably guessed, this chapter shows an alternate sequence of events of the film Alien: Resurrection. The decision to throw the Slayer into the events of this film stemmed from my desire to have him meet Ripley as well as have a formidable amount of Xenomorphs to kill. With that in mind, the first and third alien movies were out due to the limited amount of the creatures (although it would have been fun to see the Slayer waltz into the prison facility from the third movie and kill the alien straightup, wouldn't it? Cut the runtime of the movie down to 25 minutes...), so that left the second and fourth movies, which was a tough decision for me. Eventually I decided on this one, and this chapter was written. As always be sure to tell me what you though of my chapter by dropping a review, as I'm always looking to improve my writing. See you guys next time!
-ImpulsiveWeaver