Jennifer's Diary
June 8, 2621.
The day we would take Cardona Valley had come upon us, and I was shaking. My adrenaline was pumping through me making me the most nervous and excited I'd ever felt in my life. We'd been here for a total of two months working on this; planning, preparing, training, the whole nine yards. There was no way either of us were backing out of this fight. Besides I'd just gotten Jon to open up to me. I certainly wasn't going to leave him behind.
We packed all of our weapons, ammunition, food, camping gear, and explosives into the ACP Jon had refurbished for the fight. He'd reinforcing it with extra armored platting, and stored some extra gas tanks inside so we could continue the fight. He literally had to drive the whole thing through the wall since the garage door was caved in. It was pretty fun though when he did it I must admit.
Before we left though we had to do one last thing. Jon invited me to say a prayer, which I humbly did so. I thanked the Lord for keeping us safe during our preping and training. I also expressed my thankfulness for finding God, and for Him allowing me and Jon to meet each other. I continued asking that he'd help us to stay safe during the fight, and that our training, and his guidance would keep us well within the battle. I ended with a shaken, but respectful, and faithful Amen. I felt a wave of comfort and relief fall over me as I said my prayer. I felt my adrenaline slow down. I felt more confident, I felt strengthened.
Jon gave me a warm, confident, and loving smile. "We'll be fine ,Jenny." He said resting his arm on my shoulder. I gave him a hug which he accepted warmly, vibrating his mandibles in a purring manner. "That's enough of that for now. C'mon We've got work to do." I could tell he didn't want to do this, just as much as I didn't want to either, but it was time we got serious. I gave him an affirmative nod, before I put my elongated xeno-head bio-helmet on. Jon put his bio-mask on and hopped into the APC with me. I gave the grounds one last glance before we rode up the valley's main pass.
I kept my fingers curled around the hand grip of my M41A, checking periodically to make sure I had the safety on, the mag loaded, and my finger off the trigger. Jon could sense my paranoia, and began to speak. "Hey ,Jenny, calm down. We're not in the hell fields yet. Just relax."
"Why should I? I thought it was good to be alert? Besides, how can I be calm and alert at the same time?" I asked.
"That's true, but when you tense yourself up a little to much, you get all these quivers and stuff and you begin to fall apart. I've seen it happen before to a couple guys they couldn't keep their crap together and they just lost it. You only be alert when you know you need to be." He explained.
"Well, what can I do ,Jon?" I asked him. Jon pressed a button on the side of his mask where his iPhone was mounted, which began to play Elektronomia. The beat of the music coupled with the rhythmic motion of the APC as it drove over the uneven terrain helped calm my nerves. While it didn't completely distract me from the task ahead of me, I felt calmer. A series of other EDM, and 1980s songs played, like Summer of 69, Don't Stop Believing, and Living on a Prayer. I didn't know anybody still liked that era given how long it had been since they'd come out, but as I continued to listen to it I began to understand why they were still so beloved.
I also may have let my A.D.D. run a little wild as I listened to the music. Jon had some fun rocking his head back and forth slightly to the music as well. Jon also happened to find a pack of forgotten cigarettes in the APC and that made him happy in a controlled manner. I actually didn't know he was a smoker, but I didn't mind.
We made it into the pass without any opposition and drove deeper into the entry way which looked like a small canyon. We came across some resin, which was haphazardly splattered on the ground and around the canyon's walls. The stuff became more concentrated as we went deeper in. Once we made it inside the valley, Jon turned his iPhone off, and told me to go in the back and see if everything was ready. I did so and made sure that all of our magazines were full, that our ammunition was where it needed to be, and that my armor was on properly. I also made sure to check the energy in my wristbracer. We also checked our hearing protection before we began since we knew we were going to need them for the amount of ammunition we were going to chew through.
I could see us approaching the jungle that had grown over the crater. It wasn't massive really especially for what it was, but it was fairly big. It looked beautiful, but I knew deep inside it, lying underneath the tree line were hundreds, probably even thousands of xenomorphs. The fact that we hadn't seen at least one yet was making me nervous. Jon had explained that this was a tactic he'd seen the creatures use before on many occasions. He reminded me to never underestimate my opponent, as that was a deadly weakness. He was clearly talking from experience, and I paid close attention to every lesson he had to offer.
A few moments after we reached the canopy floor all hell began to break loose. The tree trunks were coated with resin, there were several dead animals cocooned to them with massive holes in their abdomens. Many of them were mostly decayed, with only stretches of skin and bones, that remained. But all of that was nothing compared to the hoard of xenomorphs that met us. There were various types of xenomorphs that attacked us, most of them were all runner types, but others were a little more unusual, like I can't describe every variation we faced that day, but I can give a few examples of some of the ones I can still remember. We saw, winged warriors, multi-armed money xenomorphs, and huge bull xenomorphs. I even saw one that looked like a snake.
We exploded out of the APC with our fire arms in hand. Jon was carrying the M56 Smartgun in both hands, while I had my M41A locked and loaded. Jon ordered me to sight my targets, which I did obediently before he gave the command to fire. We proceeded to lay waste to the oncoming swarm. The whole thing was a rush. We spent mag after mag after mag. We lobbed grenades, tossed explosives, heck Jon even lit the place on fire a few time with his wrist mounted flamethrower, which I never realized he had up to that point. We not just tore the xenomorphs themselves to pieces, but the jungle itself. Branches turned to splinters, leaves exploded into confetti, and even whole tree trunks came down. The xenomorphs themselves weren't being shot into swish cheese, they were desintegrating, literally vaporizing. Their whole bodies just exploded in this barrage of hell fire. Limbs flew, pieces of exoskeleton shot sky high, and their acid blood began to sizzle forming this greenish vapor cloud below the hoard, that began eating through some of the foliage and animal carcasses. Each time we ran out of ammo on a mag we'd cover each other for a quick second so we could reload really quickly. The callus on my hands that I'd formed during the last two months of training began splitting as I constantly moved my hands in this quick robotic fashion of shot, reload, and repeat. Occasionally we had to make a strategic retreat to another area so we could reload or avoid being overwhelmed, and even then we couldn't stop to catch our breaths. There were so many of these things Jon ended up running over a few of them that tried to flank us.
Eventually though almost all of our ammunition ran dry and we had to resorted to our melee weapons. We still had a couple hundred of the creatures left to face, but we'd weeded down a very large majority of them. Jon and I showed no fear as we charged into the remaining swarm, roaring as we did so. We sliced, slashed, and chopped up everything around us. My armor protected me well against the acid and some blows that would've been fatal to me. I did get cut a few times, some of them were deep, but not crippling.
Jon had a lot less armor on and got torn to shreds because of it. The enhancements in his cellular tissue allowed him to cut into the hoard and shower him in the acid blood with absolutely no effect on him. His skill and sheer ferocity kept him in the fight despite how much punishment he was receiving. His machete, wristblades, and smart disc cleaved through their bodies like a pair of scissors cutting through paper. He roared furiously each time he killed one of them! He was mad I tell you! He hated these things, and was using every bit of his strength and energy to kill these things! He was angry! I never knew just how much he hated these creatures until then!
The fight suddenly ended when one of the creatures, a warrior stopped, turned it's head in the other direction where the queen's chamber must have been, and sent out a shrill scream that caught most of the other xenos' attention. Those that had responded to the call fled back to the center.
"What's going on?! Why are they retreating?!" I asked Jon as I used my combi-stick to impale a xenomorph through the chest.
"I don't know! I've never seen them do that before!" He said with confusion. He stayed focused in light of his perplexity, and continued to help me fight off the swarm.
At the end of the fight I got to see Jon's more protective and ferocious side. After the swarm was left to just a few remaining stragglers, two xenomorphs were about to nail me from behind. I didn't know they were there, but Jon saw them, and charged forward. I thought he was about to ram me, but he pushed past me and began to fight them with his bare hands.
The three of them grappled for a moment, before Jon managed to force them off. He grabbed one of them by the tail, and swung it into the other. He then pulled it towards him and they began beating and clawing each other. The xenomorph managed to claw his bio-mask off, revealing Jon's angry snarling face.
"YOU DO NOT TOUCH HER!" I heard him say as he threw his fists down at the creature with powerful force. The xenomorph only managed to scratch his arms and face a bit, which only succeeded in making Jon angrier. The poor creature was quickly overpowered, and began to stop clawing at the Hunter. Jon did not let up though, and furiously continued to beat the creature into a bloody acidic pulp, cursing, spitting, and roaring as he did so. Obviously the creature attacking me had triggered him, reminding him of what had happened to his friends before. Jon had grown to love me, and was now defending me with all of his rage filled strength. I could see his fiery red eye focus on the dying beast in front of him as he uncontrollably smashed the creature's head in.
Suddenly he turned his hated filled gaze to me. His eyes were locked, his back was arched, his mandibles flared in aggressive rage. He charged at me. I thought he thought I was a xenomorph for a moment and began to panic as he launched himself at me. He dove past me and grabbed ahold of the other alien that had managed to sneak away and tried to stealth kill me again.
Jon held the monster up against a tree by it's throat. The creature shot it's tongue at him several times aiming at his head, but each shot fell far to short. Jon locked himself onto the creature, paying no attention to it as it kicked and clawed at him. I saw the creature's tail move behind them both. The creature was about to impale him from behind. I thought he hadn't noticed, and began to scream at him warning him of the danger, but I didn't need to. He moved his left hand and caught the tail. He looked at it angrily before returning his gaze towards the xenomorph. The thing was now whining a series of weak elephant screams, as his grip on the creature's throat intensified until I heard it crush in his fist. The creature fell limp. After that he picked the thing up by the tail and swung it into the tree. I heard the creature's bones splinter as he did it. After that, he exerted the last of his energy by giving a series of enraged roars down at the creature's husk.
His clawed fists were curled, leaking with his bioluminescent green blood. His powerful chest rose and fell heavily with every rasping breath he took. His look of uncontrollable wrath continued to stay locked on the creature.
"Jon?" I called to him as I took my bio-helmet off and approached him. "Jon?" I repeated touching his shoulder. He made a sharp hissing noise as he turned to face me. His look of fury fell as he saw the concerned look on my face. He looked around for a moment to see if there were any more of them, which there weren't. He began to breath a progression of exhausted sighs, as he leaned back on the tree he'd swung the xeno into.
"I'm sorry about that Jenny. I didn't mean to direct any of that at you." He apologized as he panted heavily.
"It's alright Jon. I understand," I told him as he sank down to take a seat. "Thank-you for saving me, again." I said with a short, appreciative chuckle as I put my hands on his shoulder and left arm. The tension in his muscles began to loosen as I did that.
"I wasn't going to let it happen again... I'm never going to let it happen. Not to anybody else. Especially not to you ,Jenny." He gasped his vow, as he took hold of my right hand softly.
"Thank-you Jon." I said with a smile as I sat beside him and rested my head on his shoulder.
"You're welcome." He breathed, before softly wrapping his arms around me protectively. "I love you ,Jenny." He said as he began rubbing his mandible on my head, making a soft clicking growl as he did so.
"I love you too ,Jonathan." I told him. We stayed there for a moment to collect ourselves and cuddle each other. Jon had certainly changed from the grumpy old Hunter he was before. Although he was still a teenager, he'd acted much more mature than he was. As I sat there beside him though I began to sense something different. He looked much younger than he had previously. He seemed much younger too. I don't know if it was how he acted, or something else, but he just felt so full of life all of the sudden. I'd given him that extra bit of strength he'd needed.
"Thank-you too ,Pyode Tarei'hsan." He said with sincere gratitude in his voice. I accepted his affection by wrapping my tail around his leg.
"Your Welcome ,Jon." I whispered to him. After a few more seconds of cuddling, I spoke, "Let's not rest for very long though. Somethings up with them, and I don't think any of it is good."
"Yes. That sounds like a very good idea." Jon said as he got up before helping me up as well.
We retrieved our weapons and reloaded what little ammunition we had into our mags. The canopy had become dead silent. Neither me nor Jon could hear or see anything. We cautiously moved deeper and deeper into the valley, occasionally checking our surroundings for any signs of the creatures. After a few moments that felt like hours, Jon and I stood there confused by the development. The xenomorphs were gone. Jon had assumed that the queen had sensed danger and was retreating through the pass. We drove back to the canyon and found that this was not the case. We both ended up asking ourselves where they all went off to. Jon and I pulled up satellite readings on my wristbracer and discovered the signal had vanished. We were dumbfounded.
"How the hell could they just vanish into thin air like that?" Jon asked himself. We sat there stupidly for a moments before I found something. There was smoke rising over the tree line. I put my bio-helmet on and zoomed in on it.
"Jon, look, over there! Look, zoom in on it!" I pointed it out to Jon. He saw it too. Jon growled with confusion.
"A fire? But that makes no sense-. Unless." He said. His growl of confusion deepened into that of worry. I could tell by the way his eyes widened and the way his mandibles were spread after he took his mask off that something was up. And if it was enough to worry him...
We didn't feel comfortable about it, but we decided to investigate. "What do you think it is ,Jon?" I asked him nervously.
"I'm not sure. I'm just praying to God and the Merciful Master ,Jesus, that this isn't what I think it is." He told me in a worried tone.
Before we could continue, Jon sensed something was amiss, and held his arm out and commanded me to stop. I took out my combi-stick, and Jon unsheathed his machete as we began scanning our surroundings carefully.
Suddenly two red laser lines cut through the jungle and caught me. The first one wrapped itself around my feet while the second circled around my torso, before contracting on me, pinning my arms to my sides. "Jon!" I cried out for him as they began pulling me into the jungle with startling speed and strength.
"Jenny!" He screamed reaching for me. He managed to grab ahold of me and began to pull me back. Whatever was pulling me wanted me badly, as it didn't let go or release in strength. Jon however, fought back and used all of the gentle force he could to keep me from moving forward, while also trying not to hurt me. He cursed as he tried to rip me from whatever was pulling me away. I tried to help him by cutting at the lines with my tail, but they were made of a strong material.
Another three laser lines came out of the jungle, only these ones were targeting lasers. The three small dots lined themselves up on Jon's chest. We both saw it, but we were to slow to react in time. The plasma blast came with a loud zap and flew towards Jon. The blast hit him dead center in the chest and he flew back hitting a tree before limply falling to the ground.
"JON! NO!" I screamed. I didn't know how focused the blast was. I couldn't see if it had done any damage to him, therefore I couldn't tell if the shot had tore a hole through him, killing him, or if it had simply hit him really hard and knocked him out. Another red lasso wrapped itself around me and pulled me away. "JOOOOOON!" I screamed for him as I looked back at his unresponsive body. "Let me go! Let me go!" Yes, I literally was stupid enough to tell whatever was kidnapping me to let me go. My demands were not met with any answers. I remember a clawed hand grabbing at my face before feeling this needle go into my arm. The drug that my captor ,or captors I should say, gave me made me pass out almost instantly after it was administered. Before I fell unconscious however, I could see the masked faces of our attackers. They were Yautja.
Okay so now I'm done with another chapter this one didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would have. You can pretty. uch tell what else is going to happen later on in the story, and where Ch'ris- and Rachelle might play into the story. I'll try to make some more progress while I can, but I'm not going to be very active tomorrow because it's Christmas. Also thank you NeverNeverGirl for the frequent comments they are helping me to stat interested and motivated on getting this done quicker please keep sending them. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year.