Jennifer's Diary
August 3, 2621
Life was hell for me those next few months, especially after the New Hadley's Hope incident. Broadcasting networks from every media outlet on the planet was on top of it. It was the biggest thing the entire planet had seen since Crimer's Massacre, and arguably it was just as bad, if not worse. Among the shots of the reporters talking to the operatives ,asking how the situation was going and how it was being handled, you could also see shots of the center of the colony as it burned to the ground, wounded colonists and operatives, and shots of the deceased as they were being tallied. The shots that had everyone jeering most though were the shots the operatives managed to catch as they fought Jon.
Naturally everyone was amazed to learn that the colonial marines had a Yautja in their ranks. It also didn't help heal their image after Daddy publicly revealed the truth about the marines. The carnage had lasted four days until Jon was finally caught inside an armory, where his former drill instructor/father Hadrick Schaefer tried confronting him. It didn't end well. The shots the operatives managed to get of the scene showed Jon antagonizing the operatives, before the operatives barraged him with gunfire. The news continued showing the operatives chucking Jon's corpse off of a cliff somewhere outside the colony, right before they showed an overhead recording that had been taken inside of a dropship that showed a massive explosion. The phenomenon left the media confused, but judging by what I knew and what the media had shown, I theorized Jon had survived his ordeal, and had committed honorable suicide. Why I don't know, but I didn't know of any other weapon other than a wristbracer that could've caused that kind of an explosion. You couldn't imagine how much it hurt to see that.
It was also still very confusing though since I still kept having arguments inside my mind about how he could've done that. I didn't want to forget about the moments he and I had spent together. I still wanted to think that he wasn't the murderer everyone had made him out to be. Even before he became my boyfriend he was a very gentle and (relatively) patient individual who did his best to avoid any kind of conflict ,outside of hunting xenomorphs that is.
Still I couldn't just ignore what I'd seen on Jon's bio-mask, I couldn't ignore the damage he'd done to New Hadley's, nor could I ignore the 75,000 people that had died from that attack. Eventually I was able to escape my confusion and accepted the painful truth that Jon was a murderer who'd lead to the deaths of those 75,000, and that he'd killed my friends. It wasn't easy for me to do, nor was it easy to forget about the four months I'd spent with Jon. I didn't want to remember the moments that I'd spent with him, I didn't want to think that the happiest days of my life had been spent with a murderous alien monster. I lost much of my faith because of that. I didn't stop believing in Christianity mind you, but it just didn't feel right that I'd accepted it from someone... something like Jon. I also took the effort to getting rid of my equipment, including the suit and glove he'd made for me. I even paid for a skin rejuvenation treatment to remove the mark Jon had put on my arm. I didn't want to do all of this, but... but... I don't know. I guess it only felt like the correct thing for me to do.
After that, I continued on with my life, my work, and the friends I still had. Like I said it wasn't easy ,truth be told it never is for anybody, but I did it. Needless to say I wasn't happy about it either, but I just couldn't stop living because I was in pain. I had to get up and keep moving. I had to put the past behind me and continue on, that was the only way I could recover.
Over the next nine months I spent my time getting caught up doing just that. I directed a bunch of experiments, many of which were my typical botany projects, a few chemical experiments that had been green light by Rodriguez, and Tina, who'd coincidently been promoted as assistant research directors a couple of days before I'd come home. I also began directing a few xenomorph tests in the underground lab area. Dad had allowed me to expand my horizons around that area of the facility since it technically wasn't a secret anymore after the public statement he'd made, and I had done experiments with xenomorphs before so I wasn't exactly new to such activities either, but eh. I say technically because a lot of the things we were doing down there was pretty dangerous, and needed covering up. There were a bunch of other things we did like transferring specimens to other facilities, environmental, chemical, and terrain adaptability, and neuro-hive mind tests. The latter I kept myself away from, since a lot of those tests were designed to test neuro-breakers ,tiny devices we'd implant inside the xenomorphs' skulls when they're chestbursters, which are designed to break the neural connection (the hive mind as we like to call it) between an individual specimen and the queen. Almost all of those tests were unsuccessful though, the devices never seemed to work and whenever that would happen it would result in the death of the test subject. Most of the subjects were animals, but a lot of them were colonists with bad criminal records, like murder, rape, and... yeah you get the idea. You could already tell what my thoughts were on that, which is why I dissociated myself from those tests as much as possible. The criminal records these people were charged with, was the only reason I didn't kick up a fuss to Daddy about it.
Things continued like this for the next year (nine months), and eventually the four months I'd spent with Jon were nothing more than distant memory. Of course there were some things I didn't let go of, like my physical training, and weapon practice, but then again given what I was getting into I'd rather be safe than sorry. Daddy made no objections. He didn't want to lose me again so he agreed with the idea. Beth wasn't to passionate about the idea herself, but despite how much she wasn't a fan of guns, she did see reason and tolerated it.
I would like to talk about a lot of other things too, like my getting caught up with my friends and family, some of the fun moments we spent together, inside and outside of work, and things like that, but I'm going to skip all of that to spare you all the hyperfixation rant I could get into about that.
Anyway, Beth and I were out on a walk one afternoon, debating a few upcoming tests we were about to do, as well as a few we had planned on doing afterward. We began doing that pretty often after I got back. It was like my yoga in a lot of ways, since it was a very relaxing and stress relieving way to pass the time. It especially helped during those few months we were hurting. We also went into chats about some of our fixations which also helped, and this particular walkabout was no exception. Beth talked about some of the music liked to listen to, some interesting history documents, and fantasy fiction books she'd recently read, and the current progress with her work on Dr. Reida's hive mind studies. She was still continuing those because Beth felt a sense of responsibility and obligation to the project, since she'd agreed to help her with it. It was nice to know I wasn't the only one who was struggling with the past. I felt bad about it though, because it was my sister who was also hurting. She may have been a synthetic, but even she still cared. It was moments like that that made me question if she had a soul, which I never really thought about before since I wasn't religious until after I'd met Jon. And yes I do believe she has one. Like I said I can get into hyperfixated rants.
I was able to bring the emotional mood down a bit by going on about some of my favorite music, some botany projects I was working on, and of course I got into a discussion about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, some of which I'd rewatched with Rodriguez and Tina. They had nightmares for about a week after they watched them, which I will admit I found pretty funny. Beth didn't care to much for those types of movies, but she tolerated my ranting with a patient smile on her face.
During our walk, I suddenly got this feeling that something was watching, as I calmly began scanning the area around us, my fingers crept towards my SW 4506. I will correct myself and say I hadn't gotten rid of everything Jon had given me, but I only kept it for self-defense, and not for any sentimental reasons. I saw two cloaked figures standing on a tree branch a few yards away from us.
"GET DOWN!" I told Beth pushing her away before ripping the 4506 out of my holster and shot at the two figures. After cracking off a few shots I ducked behind a tree trunk. I didn't know if the Yautja had plasma casters so I wasn't going to take a chance on standing out in the open to shoot at them and give them an opportunity to shoot back.
"What's going on?!" Beth screamed.
"Hunters!" I replied.
"What?! What are they doing here?!" Beth asked.
"I don't know! They'll be fixated on me! You go get help, I'll distract them for as long as I can!" I told her as I scanned the surrounding area again before checking to make sure I had my spare magazines with me. "GO!" I ordered Beth, who was still hiding behind the rock I'd pushed her behind in my panic.
"Look out!" Beth told me noticing one of the cloaked figures had materialized behind me.
"Wait! Jenny, it is me!" Rachelle exclaimed, as I turned to shoot. I was able to recognize her voice in time before I shot her.
"Rachelle?" I asked, keeping my pistol pointed at her with my finger off the trigger. I wasn't going to take any chances if this wasn't her. She responded by decloaking herself, confirming to me that it was her. "Holy crap ,Rachelle! You scared the piss out of my! What were you thinking sneaking up on us like that?! I almost shot you!" I told her, speaking in her language.
"I could see that!" She replied as she gently pushed the SW ,I still had pointed at her, away, before removing her bio-mask. "I am sorry ,my friend. We did not mean to startle you." She apologized, as Ch'ris jumped down next to her, decloaked, and removed his bio-mask.
"Wait?! You know these monsters?!" Beth asked, noticing I was able to communicate clearly with Rachelle.
"Beth, these are my friends ,Rachelle and Ch'ris. Guys, this is my sister ,Beth." I introduced them (in English).
"Hello." Ch'ris greeted her in a friendly yet awkward manner, growling his mandibles embarrassingly as he waved at her.
"These beasts are your friends?!" Beth exclaimed.
"I'm sorry about that. I guess I should've mentioned them to you." I apologized to her.
"You guess?! Look at them!" Beth exclaimed angrily.
"I'm sorry about Beth guys. Something happened with us and Jon, and she doesn't like Yautja because of it." I explained to them.
"Jon sent us a message giving us the details. We know what happened, and we are deeply sorry for it. We also are not offended by your sister's remarks." Ch'ris replied.
"Jenny, what are these creatures doing here?!" Beth asked, in an angry whisper.
"Beth stop calling them that! You're insulting them" I replied in an angry mumble. She didn't say it but the look she gave suggested she didn't care.
"What are you two doing here anyway?" I asked.
"We have come to ask you for your help. We have been facing unknown complications with our clans recovery into our home world." "None of the other clans have come to help us with our reconstruction, nor have they come to aid us with the mysterious happenings, and it is causing great dismay amongst us. We came to ask if you and any other Oomans you may know could help us ,Jennifer." Ch'ris and Rachelle explained.
"I'm... I'm sorry Ch'ris, but unfortunately I'm tied up. I'd love to help you both, but after the way things have been this past year... Besides, if I told anybody else you were here the Task Force would be after you in a heartbeat." I apologized, looking over at Beth. She knew I wanted her to keep Ch'ris and Rachelle secret, and as such she returned my pitiful look with an angry expression. "I'm sorry." I said once more.
Rachelle and Ch'ris both sighed. "You need not apologize my friend. I understand you're troubled, and I forgive your current inabilities. It has been a hard season for us as well. We still have dissenters within our clan who mean to sabotage us. We have managed to catch them during our progress, but because of them, the neglect from our fellow clans, and the many disturbances we've had that we cannot explain, our clan has been greatly discouraged, as are we. We did not mean to disturb you." Rachelle replied.
"No, No! It's alright. It's just..." I exclaimed a little as I holstered my pistol and pulled my hair back. I paused. "... Jon already told you?" I asked needlessly, knowing the answer to my question.
"Yes." Ch'ris replied.
"I thought so." I said looking away with a disappointed look on my face. I wasn't disappointed with them, I was disappointed with him. To think Kjon told his little tale of woe to Ch'ris and Rachelle was so demeaning to think about. I didn't want to remember anything about him after what he did. My angry glaring at the ground, and Beth's angry staring made them a little uncomfortable.
"We are greatly sorry for disturbing you ,my friend. We will not cause you anymore trouble." Ch'ris said as he and Rachelle went to leave.
"No, No, No! Please don't. You came all this way, please-I just-I-I just. I'd feel guilty if you didn't stay for a couple of days ,at the very least." I said.
"A couple of days!" Beth exclaimed.
"Shut up ,Beth. These two are not like Kjon." I murmured back angrily.
"What about the Ooman soldiers you speak of?" Ch'ris asked.
"They don't know you're here, and we're not going to tell anyone you are." I replied stepping on Beth's foot lightly.
"Fine," Beth grumbled, "But if they so much as harm-!" She was about to threaten, before I cut her off.
"They won't. I know these two ,Beth. Trust me." I told her.
"Like you knew that Hunter ,Kjon?" That remark stung.
"Kjon did not slay any Oomans! He may have harmed many of the soldiers you speak of, but he did not kill a single one of them!" Rachelle protested in her friends defense.
"How would you know?! Did he cut you in half, and slaughter your friends like animals?!" Beth retorted. Rachelle vibrated her mandibles in an angry growl.
"Gkei'moun R'ka, this is the sister of our friend. Even if she is not even an Ooman, Jenny still cares for her. Let us not provoke her." Ch'ris said to Rachelle as he and I came between both her and Beth.
"Thank-you Ch'ris." I thanked him before addressing my sister. "Listen sis. I know Kjon lied to us, but these guys are my friends and I still trust them." I said glancing back at them for a short moment. Rachelle was taken aback a little by the fact I believed that Kjon was a murderer, even though she'd already known about what I thought. Ch'ris, also looked a little pained by hearing that, but he wasn't nearly as shocked as his mate.
"Come. Let us go to our ship so that we may talk without risking the arrival of the Ooman soldiers." Ch'ris invited us. That was actually a smart idea since there were Task Force personnel who patrolled the perimeter of the facility. Beth and I would talk to a couple of them whenever we ran into one during our walks. I brought this up to them and we all agreed to the idea. Well everyone except for Beth of course.
"Ch'ris' ship looked no different from the last time I'd been inside it. Memories of the moments the four of us spent together replayed in my mind regretfully, as I took in the familiar hieroglyphical imagery. I jumped a little when I saw one of them move, only to realize it was only Sa-v'ar. Beth freaked out once she saw the eight foot tall endoparasitoid creature approach us on all fours. The creature paid my sister no regard, sensing she wasn't a threat to us or her. She did however recognize me, and greeted me by nuzzled my leg a little, before she sat down and raised her head for me to pet her, which I happily did so. Once Beth saw me petting the docile creature we were able to calm her down.
Needless to say Beth wanted some explanations. I gave her a brief run down of what I'd went through with Kjon, Ch'ris, and Rachelle during the four months I was gone, minus a few details like the Drukathi, and the Thei-de Tjau'ke.
"So you went galavanting across an alien solar system with your alien boyfriend hunting other alien species like the xenomorphs the whole time you were away? Is that correct?" Beth asked.
"Well it wasn't during the whole time I was away, but yeah. Essentially that's what I did." I replied.
"And not once did you think any of us back home were worried about you? You didn't think to give us any indication you were alright, so at least we wouldn't have had to worry about you?" Beth asked a little perturbed by the thought.
"Bethany, may I call you that? Please, do not scream at your sister. She meant no harm. She was merely curious of our world and wished to spend more time with us." Ch'ris explained.
"With a bunch of other murderous monsters like ,Kjon?!" Beth responded. That caused Ch'ris to sigh a patient growl, and cause Rachelle clench her fists and growl a little in anger.
"You'd be surprised what the Yautja are actually like, sis. Sure a lot of them are like Jon, but a lot of them aren't." I told Beth.
"Please do not refer to Kjon with such indignity ,Jennifer. He was not the dishonorable Abomination we all thought he was." Ch'ris replied calmly.
"I'm sorry Ch'ris. He killed our friends. Believe me it makes no sense to me why he'd do such a thing either, but it's the truth. I saw it come from his own bio-mask. He even attacked Dad after I saw it." I explained.
"Of which he has told us about, Jenny. But none of it is the truth. We tell you, we saw him when the Ooman soldiers attempted to slay him. During which time he made no move to provoke them." Rachelle tried to persuade me.
"You're wrong! He tried to shoot those operatives!" Beth testified.
"I was there to see it!" Rachelle hollered back.
"Oh yeah, what about when he cut me in half?! Weren't there when that happened, were you?!" Beth responded with snark in her voice.
"Guys, please stop fighting. It doesn't matter anymore." I said with an exhausted sigh as I thought back to when it all happened.
"How can you say that ,Jennifer?! You were with us?! You saw how he risked our lives for us numerous times against the bad bloods?! What when he sacrificed himself so Ch'ris and Sa-v'ar could escape with you and I, or when he fought the Abominations, or when he fought Zell-oah?! Do you remember none of that?!" Rachelle asked with a shocked look. She couldn't believe she was actually hearing what was coming out of my mouth. That I believed Jon was a dishonorable Abomination, like none of the things I'd seen him do for us had never happened. Personally I wanted to forget they did. I told everyone about that last part, which effectively tore Rachelle's heart out.
"I can't stand to hear you detest him like this ,Jennifer?! Why?!" Rachelle exclaimed.
"Rachelle. Gkei'moun R'ka, that is enough. Jennifer is right. There is nothing more we can do about the matter. Kjon is dead now, and we have no proof worthy enough to clear his name." Ch'ris told her.
"What of his testimony though? What of everything he told us before he...?" Rachelle asked her mate.
"That cannot do either. We've already discussed this before. I am just as upset as you are about what we did to him, but there is nothing more we can do. He's gone." Although Ch'ris liked to be optimistic and think positively, he still listened to reason, and he couldn't ignore the truth for what it was.
"May we at least show ,Jennifer?" Rachelle asked. She and Ch'ris looked over at me, prompting me to look at Beth who gave thoughtless eye roll, signifying she didn't care.
"Go ahead. I don't mind." I replied.
Ch'ris showed me the last moments he'd been able to see Jon, which were arguably the most painful ones I'd seen him have in his whole life. Not just physically, but also psychologically. You could see it in the look he had in his eye. The way he talked, and even when he was prepared to shoot himself, in the way he cried about the deaths of his Hunter Siblings. It actually made me question a little if he really hadn't killed my friends and all those other people at New Hadley's. Then again though, for how impassionate it was to see, it still didn't prove his innocence. Beth was indignant about the whole thing, Rachelle and Ch'ris were heartbroken, but at least Ch'ris accepted the tragedy that it was. His friend ,whom had cared for him like a brother, was gone, and according to what he'd believed, he'd been one of the ones who'd driven him to his grave, and there was nothing else that could be done about it. Nor could there be anything done to prove his innocence, not to me, not to Beth, not to the colonists, not even to his own kind whom Ch'ris explained had "pardoned" him. I should also mention Ch'ris explained how the confrontation with Kjon went, which had also included not just them both and Hadrick, but also Ph-rills, Trish, and Beo'n. Even for how emotionally impactful their story was, it still didn't change my idea on the matter. Ch'ris accepted that. Rachelle was reluctant, but she also agreed with her husband, and Beth, need I say anything about how she felt.
Despite the mysterious development going on inside their clan, I was able to convince Ch'ris and Rachelle to stay a few more days. I just felt guilty that they'd come so far, to ask for our help, it just felt rude not to at least have them stay at least a moment so we could catch up, and give each other a little emotional support, despite how impossible that seemed. Given how they described their situation, I reasoned there was very little they could do to do anything about the situation with their clan anyway. I'm also pretty sure they felt similarly.
Once Beth and I returned to the facility we acted as though nothing had even happened. Beth remained true to her agreement, and didn't say a word about Ch'ris and Rachelle to any of our friends, the Task Force, not even Daddy.
Over the next few days, after I'd finish work I'd sneak out and visit Ch'ris and Rachelle. Beth would tag along most of the time just to make sure neither of them hurt me. Eventually she grew to tolerate them along with Sa-v'ar, who she mostly ignored. At most Beth was interested in how Ch'ris and Rachelle were able to make Sa-v'ar so docile, since it would help her figure out a few things in relation to Dr. Reida's experiments, but Ch'ris and Rachelle would never tell her, and for their sake I didn't explain either. Beth was a little annoyed by that.
Sometime around the end of Ch'ris and Rachelle's visit, as I was turning in the reports on the experiments I'd conducted into Document Storage ,the room that stood adjacent to Daddy's underground office where we kept most if not all of the documents we had related to the business dealings, scientific work, and personnel information we had on this planet, as well as a few historical documents, something caught my attention. My attention was arrested by the history documents section. Personally, I didn't know why we bothered to store those in Document Storage, but mine is not the reason why.
A spark of curiosity peaked my interest enough so that ,after I finished storing away my documents, I went to look through the folders inside, and found a couple of interesting documents about a few of the colonial marines' missions, the most notable of which included Talco, a small colony in the south western hemisphere of the planet called Tenerac, and even Crimer's Ridge. The one that caught my interest the most however, was a document on the New Hadley's Hope attack. I wasn't surprised to see it in there, but I will admit it did startle me in something of an unexpected way. I curiously began looking through the file, and saw nothing I hadn't seen before on the news nine months prior. The file was basically one huge essay on the topic, which included a few overhead pictures of the colony burning as well as a few well shot pictures on the ground, two of which included Jon in them. There were also a few tapes with the document, all of which I'm sure were either newsreels, or footage the operatives managed to get on the ground. I took one of them which read "SPEARS" on the front of it, locked the door to Dad's office just to be safe, and played the tape on Dad's office T.V..
As the title had suggested it was footage from General Spears body camera. I fast forwarded through all of it until I landed on the part where Jon exploded out of the armory with his M41A Pulse Rifle, roared antagonistically at the operatives, and went to shoot at them only for them to shoot him before he could even crack a shot from his firearm, just the same as it was presented on the news. Unlike the news however, the footage didn't simply cut to the operatives throwing Jon's body off of a cliff, but continued showing the full extent of Jon's suffering, from Massey and his men shooting Jon even more, to them beating him, and even the part where Spears shot Jon, seemingly killing him.
The whole thing was painful to watch, not just because it brought back memories I didn't want to remember, but because I actually felt something for the blood thirsty monster. I was actually feeling sorry for the one-thing that had taken my friends lives as well as the lives of 75,000 others nine months ago. It didn't feel right for me to take pity on him. I didn't want to remember him, I refused to even know the Abomination. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him at all. It didn't even matter that he was dead, I just wanted to forget about him completely. I remember thinking that if there was a Hell (like I said I had fallen away from my faith) he deserved everything he got, and more of it. Yes I may have been a little harsh with that thought, but I was thinking about my friends, as well as the 75,000 plus people from New Hadley's who died, and the people who'd been connected to those people who were still suffering from what he'd caused.
As I angrily got up to burn the tape, I accidently knocked over the case for it. I saw a sticky note on the back of it that I hadn't noticed.
"Put tape with H#121-B. Replace H#121-A with H#121-B. DO NOT FORGET!" The note read.
What was it saying when it said replace File H#121-A with H#121-B? The file was simply labeled H#121, no hyphen, no A or B, it was just H#121. And why was it so important as to add DO NOT FORGET! with it? I went through the document again and found it had just recently been added to the historical documents drawer. I was confused by this. If this was such an important document, why was it just now recently added to the drawer? Shouldn't such an important part of the corporation's history on this planet be documented and added to our files sooner than that? And what was with H#121-A and H#121-B when there were no documents with that designation in any of our documents? I'd looked the names of those documents on our Document Storage computer system, and my search turned up nothing.
My curiosity carried me over towards Dad's desk drawers where I began looking for a schedule list. Schedule lists are basically little notes with lists on them of things that needed to be done around the facility, like if an artifact was taken out of Artifacts Storage, it needed to be returned on a certain time, or if the testing chamber needed maintenance, someone needed to go in there and check it to make sure it was functioning properly before anyone began any tests inside of it, things like that. I found what I was after and scrolled through the list. It was around the second week of August and I remember the document's date being written on it saying it was logged on August 9, 2620, or March 21, 2620 from what the computer told me ,which seemed more reasonable to believe, but also made the situation all the more suspicious. On the schedule sheet I found that there were certain unlogged documents some of which were to be replaced with other documents which were to be incinerated along with a bunch of other important items. Items I thought were important at least. The date was also set on when those documents and important sources were set to be incinerated. August 16, 2620. I looked at the date and saw that it was the 16th.
After finding all of this out I put the documents away and cleared everything out and decided to investigate what exactly it was they were incinerating.