Jennifer/Beth's Audio Diary Log.

April 29, 2621

(Beth) Tired?

(Jenny) No no. I'm fine ,sis. I'm just a little exhausted that's all.

(Beth) I take it the therapy didn't go so well?

(Jenny) Well let's just say it didn't go as well as I hoped it would.

(Beth) Still doing pretty bad isn't he.

(Jenny) Yep.

(Beth) So where should we begin?

(Jenny) I fell it is best if you start. You were there when the outbreak started, right sis?

(Beth) Certainly. It began when Terry Matthews, Lisa Williams, and I were assisting our chief Xenology Biologist ,Dr. Martha Reida, with an experiment involving the xenomorph's hive mind capabilities. Dr. Reida and I were doing research on the topic for months trying to find a scientific way to determine how the hive mind of the xenomorphs works. If we could, find a way to figure out how it did work, we might have also discovered a way to interfere with it, to create some way to confuse, or possibly even control them. I was skeptical on the notion at first, but Dr. Reida was me and Jennifer's teacher on the subject, one of our closest friends, and a very good scientist, who's work was very notable among several of the company's recent breakthroughs in Xenology at the time, that and given the increase in the number of outbreaks that occurred at the time, all of them orchestrated by the queen no doubt, I agreed to assist her without hesitation. Unfortunately for us the Security Task Force team we had assisting us with the more physically demanding parts of the project were less involved than our normal teams were, and because of their bumbling stupidity a security malfunction went undetected during the procedure. The result was an obvious break in containment, which lead to the death of several Task Force operatives, staff employees, scientists, and... and...

Jenny and Beth sigh dispassionately, and sniffle a few tears.

(Jenny) Dr. Reida, Lisa, and Terry.

(Beth) Yes. We lost them too...

(Jenny) I'm sorry I wasn't there with you ,Beth. Maybe I could've done something that would've prevented it.

(Beth) It's fine. I'm alright. You aren't to blame for it at all. No one is really. We were to careless to notice that anything had gone wrong until it was too late. I also suffered from the outbreak, however given my artificial physiology. I survived.

(Jenny) Tore you in half. Bet that was a pain for Dad to put you back together again.

(Beth) Oh, it was, believe me. But what was most disturbing about the situation was that the queen had managed to escape containment. She had made several attempts before, none of them had been successful, but then she just stopped. We hadn't understood that the purpose of the outbreaks before hadn't just been escape attempts, but the queen was trying to get familiar with the area around her, using her subjects to test our security systems, and find ways to bypass them so she could make her ultimate escape. None of us saw this coming.

Upon realizing the severity of the situation, I had to warn everyone. That is kind of hard to do when you have to use your hands as legs, while your main power server is threatening to expire. But I managed to manually activate the alarm system before I powered down.

(Jenny) I was doing tests on a newly discovered Zwiglia plant specimen at the time, the purposes of which were to find how much carbon dioxide it could respirate. Upon closer studies I found out that it's consumption of the substance was ten times greater than that of a regular plant. Not only that but it also required less sunlight than usual to remain alive, unlike most other planets. I was going to try and find this out so I could create a solution for the other terraformed planets, as there were many of them that had oxygenated atmospheres that were more lacking in breathable air. My experiments were unable to reach a conclusion as Beth's warning began ringing across the entire facility.

I'd been through several outbreaks before so I was calm and collected, and followed safety procedures like I normally did in these kinds of situations. But that all turned upside down when I discovered we were in the middle of a class 10 xenomorph outbreak. The worst I had ever experienced was a category 5, most others were lower than that. It must have been serious if the entire facility had to be put on total lockdown. I was not as independent a person then, as I am now. I had no idea what to do in a situation as serious as that. I had been like so many others, who were reliant on the faithfulness and integrity of the safety measures and procedures that guided me before. All of the sudden those were useless and I was left panicking, wondering what to do. Daddy's work area wasn't far from the laboratory that I had been working in, that had to be the safest place in the entire facility, which it was kind of, but still easily accessible to the xenomorphs. It wasn't so much the safety I was looking for, but more of the guidance to safety that I was depending on. Dad would have the answers. I was sure. He always made sure we were safe.

Once I made it to Dad's work station, where he usually was in the wake of an outbreak, I could see the concern in his face. I'd never seen him so stressed in my life. He was sweating fiercely, giving orders to people all around him, scientists, Task Force operatives, security administrators, everyone in his line of sight was given an order and they were expected to do it if they knew what was good for them. I was a big topic of importance to him. He was in the middle of yelling at a Task Force Sergeant, demanding where I was and if I was safe, before I barged in.

Daddy drew a relieved sigh when he saw that I was safe. I asked him panickingly what was going on, and received a snarky answer from a more panicked security admin. "Sht is on full lock down! Haven't you been hearing the sirens?! The Queen has escaped! Dear God, were all gonna fckin die!"

His reaction scared me more than anything else. The Sergeant quickly punched the man in the face, telling him to stop loosing his sht. I returned to Dad asking him what we were going to do, still holding my arms around him tightly.

He told me he had to make sure things didn't get any worse they already had gotten. He assigned the Sergeant and some of his men who were present with us to take me to the safe house underneath the facility. The safe house was the most safe area in the whole facility, deep enough to escape damage from a nuke, and strong enough to withstand several high altitude bunker buster missiles, for so I was told at least. Regardless of whether any of this was true, It was safe enough to withstand what we were up against.

I didn't want to be away from Dad though, I told him I didn't want to leave him, but he insisted, and gave me a GPS/Communication bracelet, followed by a reassuring remark that everything would be alright. I unwillingly agreed to leave, and was pulled away from him by the Task Force Sergeant, but not before we both managed to tell each other that we loved each other.

The Sergeant, surly as he was, lead me and his men to the underground safe room. Z, one of the men under the Sergeant's direction, asked him what they were going to do. He was obviously shaken, but controlled. He'd been in some outbreaks before. no doubt, but nothing of this severity. His Sergeant gave him no reply. He didn't look nervous, but rather irritated, and inconvenienced by what was going on. His subordinates continued asking him questions which didn't help calm him down. Right as the Sergeant was about to go off on Z, a xenomorph dropped down out of nowhere on top of the other nameless Task Force guy, and began tearing him apart. The Sergeant dropped his gun and fled. Z did the noble thing and protected me, gunning the beast down in the process. I was in shock by the ordeal, this had been the first time I'd actually saw a live xenomorph, effortlessly killed someone standing next to me, without any hesitation. Z picked me up and snapped me out of my shocked stupor, and took me to the safe house, which had only been a short distance away from us at the time.

As we arrived at the safe house we were locked out by the Sergeant. Z tried to persuade the man, but couldn't make his Sergeant help us. Eventually though, through some trial and error, he managed to unlock the safe house's door through it's outside breaker. The next thing we saw was the Sergeant getting killed by a xenomorph that had managed to break in through the ventilation system. Apparently this place wasn't as safe as I thought it was. Z tried to fire at the creature, but his gun was out of ammunition. He tried to reload, but the xeno had him pinned to the ground, and began tearing at him with it's claws. He screamed for me to run, while the creature was distracted with him, and I obeyed. His screams carried on for a few moments longer before they were silenced.

The xenomorph quickly materialized several paces behind me on top of the ceiling, and was rushing after me at full speed. I tripped over the Sergeant's gun. I didn't bother getting up, but instead I reached for the gun I'd tripped over to use it on the monster. It was an antique M16 rifle. Old but very reliable if I do say so myself since I'm still alive to prove it. I had never fired a gun before in my life, and I fumbled with the thing trying desperately to make it shoot. The shots didn't come out. Finally after I accidently racked the slide back as I fumbled with it, I felt the gun recoil uncontrollably in my grasp. Thankfully I managed to hit the xenomorph. It's dead husk splattered acid on me as I got back up to run. Thankfully my clothing protected me long enough for me to strip them of before the acid could dissolve through them onto me. I ended up running around in my undergarments for the rest of the day, but considering there were monsters everywhere, I was less than embarrassed about that.

I ended up running into another xenomorph as I tried running back to Daddy's work room. As the creature went to pounce on me an explosion then went off in the side of the wall that stunned me and the creature. The explosion had made a hole in the wall that allowed me to escape through as the xenomorph recovered. I ran outside the facility and into the jungle as quickly as I could, but the xenomorph was still on me. I ran as fast as I could. I do yoga everyday so that allowed me to carry my stride as long as I could, but my running speed was very lacking as was my endurance. I ran until I couldn't move another step. I was out of breath and my legs were the most tired they'd ever been. I watched as the creature pounced closer and closer towards me, skipping through the trees skillfully as it did so.

Millions of thoughts raced through my head as I faced the creature that would undoubtedly take my life right then at that moment. What was death like? What would happen after I died? What would Daddy and Beth do when they found me? Had I done everything I could that made my life worth something? I closed my eyes and braced myself for the creature to end my life.

Just before the xenomorph could reach me though, I heard a loud zapping sound cut through the jungle, and I managed to catch a glimpse of a blue ball of light soar towards the xenomorph before the creature exploded into pieces. I stood there amazed by the scene trying to comprehend what I'd just seen, wondering where that blue ball of light had come from. I received an answer in the form of a camouflaged figure. The figure's features were incomprehensible as the camouflage he wore distorted the color around him, but I could tell he was mostly humanoid in shape. He was also big, much bigger than I was or any one else I knew. The figure observed me with what I guess was curiosity as the area where his head should have been tilted to the side. The silhouette's featureless face then flashed like burning fire, revealing two glowing eyes that disappeared a second later. I stood awestruck by the person who'd just saved me as the realization dawned on me as to who my savior was.

It was one of the Hunters. Predators I remember the colonial marines called them. I made no move to run, as the Predator made no move to harm me, although I was still terrified by his presence. I remember hearing stories about these guys, how they traveled entire galaxies in search of prey to hunt. Their technology was far more advanced than ours, their strength and ferocity allowed them to take on creatures like the xenomorphs, and many other unheard of creatures we had yet to discover. I remember thinking that it was going to kill me, but I'd forgotten that these guys only hunt prey that posed a worthy challenge to them, like they had some sort of code of honor that prevented them from harming any prey that wasn't dangerous to them.

I was so fixed on the Hunter that I didn't notice that three other xenomorphs had found us and were attacking. The first two made a move towards me. As I noticed them I tried running away, but I moved to slowly. Thankfully, one of them was moved away by the Predator, and the second that had meant to harm me had a blade driven through it's chest. The blade was also cloaked by the Predator's camouflage. I was only able to see it by the xenomorph's acidic blood soaking harmlessly on it as it cleaved through the beast's torso. The first one tried to recover, but it was quickly decapitated by the almost completely invisible Hunter. The Predator's invisibility then began to malfunction after he walked through a puddle of water causing him to deactivate it, revealing himself to me for the first time.

(Beth) From the notes I managed to find concerning the Yautja's camouflaging technology, the Predator's wristbracer and their fishnet mesh they wear around their bodies allows them to camouflage into their surroundings by tapping into the frequency of light waves that are emitted around them. Their technology bends those light waves as they bounce around them to match the color and texture of their surroundings, allowing for almost perfect invisibility. Those waves are disrupted whenever the Yautja moves causing the camouflage to bend and distort. The water disrupts the signal being transmitted from the wristbracer that is extended to the rest of their bodies by the fishnet mesh, whenever it comes into physical contact with it.

(Jenny) What she said.

The two begin to laugh humorously.

(Jenny) At any rate. Finding out that the Predator was also there, the xenomorph then pounced at him attempting to claw him, but the muscular humanoid cleaved the xenomorph in half horizontally with his machete. The Predator then turned back to me, as he wiped the acid off his blade before sheathing it.

I could see him perfectly. He was large, larger than any human I knew. He had some armor covering the right side of his chest and shoulder, but none on his other side. His muscles bore prominently across his arms and abdomen. I expected him to be almost completely naked, with only a cloth to cover his groin, but to my surprise he wore a pair of camouflaged pants with a belt tightly affixed around his waist with the United States Colonial Marine Corps logo welded onto it. He wore no foot protection, and his feet revealed sharp toe-claws, which I suspected he used for climbing. The claws on his fingers were also razor-sharp. His skin was light brown, with pale yellow stripes running across his arms and abdominal area. His dreadlocks were black, and lacked any of the ornamental beads most of the species normally wore. His smooth silver mask had an xed out smiley face on it, which I humorously chuckled at because of how ridiculous it looked, and above it I saw a figure with an elongated head etched onto it with three dots forming into a triangle surrounding the figure.

I didn't see much else on him as he made a growling noise, that scarred me. I took off in the direction I assumed was home, but I quickly discovered it wasn't before I fell and hit my head on a rock causing everything to go dark.

Finally I managed to get a chapter done on time. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Also BTW The title of this chapter "Without Warning" is an homage to a 1980 film of the same name. The movie is about an alien (of course) that hunts people (why not) for food, it's really cheesy, but alot of fun, and the alien is portrayed masterfully by Kevin Peter Hall the same actor who played the Jungle Hunter and City Hunter Predators from the first two Predator movies. Crazy huh. Anyway hope you guys enjoyed and I'll begin work on the next chapter as soon as possible. Later ;)