Disclaimer: I do not own the Aliens nor the Alien franchise, they belong to 20th Century FOX.

*To make this clear, this is NOT my story. This little masterpiece is a reupload of a story that was, regrettably, deleted and/or taken out, a few years ago, without warning. All I am doing here is posting it back so any future readers have the opportunity to enjoy reading this little jewel, just as I did when I first stumbled upon it so long ago. 2006, or 2008, I think? This story and all the credit goes to Bryan Oryan, the author of this work.

Unfortunately, I don't have all the chapters with me to be posted. I only have about half of the total number of chapters. If there is anyone out there that managed to copy and save all the chapters of this story, please let me know. I'll appreciate it.

PS: Maybe if you nag Bryan with enough PMs, you can convince him to upload the full story himself. If he still around…

Aliens: Blood

By Bryan Oryan

Prologue

Darkness engulfed her gargantuan form as she spiralled through the immense gulf of space, her limbs drawn in and coiled into a foetal position she hadn't experienced since her birth.

The depths of the endless void were freezing cold, though she couldn't feel it through her thickened chitinous hide or in the acidic blood that flowed through her veins. Tendrils of opaque saliva flowed from her mouth, frozen pendants hanging like stalactites in a subterranean cave.

She had no conception of time, couldn't tell how long she had lain dormant in suspended animation while she had drifted past moons and planetoids, celestial bodies far from her grasp. As she slept, she remembered her children, the hundreds of her brood that had been lost in the searing white fire that had engulfed her nest. She remembered the woman warrior who had obliterated her hive; who had fought her with a metal construct, seared her flesh, and threw her from the flying platform she had infiltrated. She also remembered the last of her children who had stowed away with her, felt their presence as she slipped away from them, and sank into a state of limbo while she rested. Though it had taken time; years perhaps, her rage and anger had subsided and gave way to a sense of surreal calmness, for she knew that her time would come again, for she was eternal.

Her slumber was disturbed as her enhanced senses detected something, an immense presence, a concentration of life force she hadn't experienced in her lifetime: far stronger than the creatures she had sensed around her previous nesting ground. Hundreds, maybe thousands of potential hosts were nearby, and within her reach. They seemed to be moving towards her, slowly approaching and bringing with it the chance of creating another hive.

After what could have been a decade of being immobilised, her limbs stretched, talons flexed, and the coiled prehensile tail slowly snaked out from around her. Shifting the massive crown of her head, her lower jaw shifted forward from within the protective cowl surrounding her muzzle, lips parting and teeth gleaming dimly in the faint light of the nearest star. With a silent scream, the saliva caked around her mouth fractured and broke away into crystals as she tried to move, to alter her trajectory and reach out to grip one of the star ships as they passed by.

Her clawed hands brushed the slick metallic surface of the vehicle, and with mindless ferocity she erupted into a violent fury, scrabbling with nails and tail to secure a strong hold. Her fingers tore through the hull of the ship, and she created her own handholds as she slowly heaved herself across the surface of the spacecraft.

As she moved closer towards a familiar panel on the surface, the mix of the vibrations of the engine and the potency of the life force within the ship excited her, urging her onwards as she moved towards her target. The frayed hull of the ship sliced her digits as she moved, spewing crystals of frozen acid as she went, until she reached a control panel beside a door marked 'Airlock'.

The writing meant nothing to her, as did the strange symbols on the controls, but she knew these small pieces of plastic could help her: they had in the past, when the metal cage had pulled her out the depths of her doomed nursery. They had also aided the female warrior in throwing her from the ship.

She banged and pounded mindlessly at the controls, the blood from her fresh wounds seeping onto the buttons and slowly melting through wiring behind them. The panel erupted in a small shower of sparks, and the seam of the airlock parted, giving her a space to work on with her ungodly strength as she pried to port open, heaving her immense bulk into the ship and buckling slightly as the pull of gravity quickly dragged her down. The weightlessness she had experienced for so long quickly lost, she lay in the airlock as the door automatically sealed behind her and a rush of fresh air flooded into the room, trying to become accustomed to the environment that she had been missing for what seemed like a lifetime.

After she had rested and recovered, she would have to begin work on her new hive, and she would have to move fast before she was discovered.