Aliens: Intermission

by CrazyBirdMan59

Between the events of Aliens: Symbiosis and its sequel, Aliens: Insurrection, the Resistance finds itself a semi-peaceful intermission period to gather strength for the coming storm. M for violence, swearing, and probably lemons, seeing as you lot love them so much.

7. Aristocracy

Planet Altin
0900 hours
Mission Time: N/A
Unnamed Squad

"If he can't handle a simple deadline, I'm going to have serious doubts about taking him on this mission," Jake harrumphed, more than a little annoyed. He and Advena had arrived at the spaceport half an hour early in order to ensure they were completely and utterly prepared. They had even spent some time familiarising themselves with the ship; it was a mobile command base, not unlike the one Tyler currently called home, the key difference being this one was larger to accommodate longer-distance flights. Speaking of Tyler…

"He had an epiphany, apparently," Sal informed them apologetically. "He's leaving the bunker now." Sure enough, two minutes later, Tyler jogged across the asphalt towards them, a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. He was a stark contrast to the armour-wearing marines awaiting his arrival, dressed instead in what was apparently your average rebel's apparel. Thick faded grey jeans, heavy black boots, fingerless black gloves, dulled blue T-shirt and a thick, black bomber jacket to top it all off. Jake raised an eyebrow at the patch which had recently been sewn into the left shoulder: an eagle, eyes towards the sky, poised as if in the middle of an eruptive takeoff.

"You took your time," Jake sighed, deciding not to question the apparel.

"I was just fetching some lube, y'know, for all the buttsex Sal and I will be having on the trip over," Tyler quipped as he hopped up onto the ship's loading ramp. Jake watched him saunter up the small sheet of metal, into the poorly-lit interior of the cargo bay, placed between the two enormous barrel-like rear thrusters. Sal stalked aboard next, looking none too pleased about the grimy, unfurnished area, followed closely by Leonard McDain, Estela Burtz and their Xenos. Jake took a deep breath, thinking about all the possible ways this mission could go wrong, especially with a loose cannon like Tyler in the mix. He clambered onto the cold metal, placing a hand on the pipe-and-cable-lined ceiling, his footsteps echoing in the enclosed space.

A hiss of steam rattling through the pipes shattered the almost-silence temporarily, before letting the ship fall back to its usual low hum of flowing power. He dropped his backpack in the next room, which turned out to be the galley, which branched off to the rec room and the live-crew quarters. Through the next doorway was the room dominated by several cryo pods arranged into a pattern reminiscent of some kind of shimmering crystal flower. He ducked under the coolant valves and slipped through the final doorway onto the bridge. Larry was flicking switches which lined the cockpit, glancing down at the screens set into the consoles before him every now and again.

"Automatic take-off procedures now engaged. Please stand by for the automated shuttle marshal to clear your flight, and have a pleasant day," the on-board AI droned, her voice buzzy and annoyingly low-quality.

"Is everyone ready?" Larry inquired without looking back, his hand clamping around a small dial. He began cranking it up, and Jake heard the engines' whining rising in pitch to match.

"Yeah," Jake replied, his eyes drawn to the flashing orange light above and slightly to the left of the android's head. Larry nodded and flicked the switch associated with the light, triggering a metallic clank followed by the hydraulics of the loading ramp. A clang which echoed through the ship told of the vessel having been sealed up tight.

"Then you had best get ready for your sleep." Jake nodded despite the fact Larry was still gazing over the screens.

"Try not to let Tyler kill you on the trip over."

"It's not the human I'm worried about," Larry reminded him, and fairly enough, Jake supposed. An android could outmatch a human any day, but a Xenomorph… strong as they were, androids weren't above being torn in half by the aliens' hands.

"Well, I'll see you in a week, anyway." Larry waved him off over his shoulder dismissively, so Jake just shook his head and left. He hadn't seen a lot of androids in his time – mostly because they were borderline-outlawed and feared by the masses – and now he was thankful for it, if the rest were anything like this one. Who programmed a robot to be snobbish?

He stripped his armour off and began stacking it neatly in one of the cryo room's many lockers, a flash of his ID card claiming it as his. He smiled as he felt Advena watching in awe as the glass lids of the pod raised themselves, ghost-like with a hiss of escaping gas, like a crystal flower now blossoming in the bright, artificial light of the sun-like overhead lights. Right, that's enough of that metaphor.

"Which one is ours?" Advena asked cutely, and Jake couldn't help but laugh at her adorable innocence.

"'Vee, we can't both fit in one together – you'll barely fit in one alone."

"But we always sleep together!" she protested, crestfallen. Jake cupped her cheek gently and kissed her dome.

"Trust me, we'll be awake again just like that," he said as he snapped his fingers. "You won't notice the time go by at all."

He eventually coerced his alien companion into her own pod, making sure to stay by her side until the lid closed and their Bond cut off as she was doused in a heavy shower of cryogenic fluid. He found himself grateful that he and Advena had decided to train themselves to separate, else he would have felt faint from the sudden disappearance of her mental presence. With a sigh, he sat down in his own pod, glancing over to see the other marines doing the same. He slipped his legs into the pod and thumbed the button on the outside, watching the lid descend upon him until it clicked shut, and the pipes began hissing as he too was sprayed with cryogenic fluids.

~~~~~~~~~~(A Day Later)~~~~~~~~~~

Jeica stepped outside the spaceport's control tower, holding a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the blazing sun. Distantly, the dark grey bulk of a space vessel parted the hazy skies, just outside of atmosphere but still well visible from below. That meant it was rather enormous; probably a heavy interstellar siege class capital vessel, designed to lay waste to entire solar systems at a time and fitted with dozens of smaller cruisers in its hangars.

"Holy shit, they're dressed to impress aren't they?" Jeica remarked smartly. Akilina was grinning from ear to ear as she dropped her belongings on the asphalt beside her.

"Never be too careful. In American space; very dangerous." They waited patiently together, eventually leading to Akilina pointing at a growing shape in the sky. A small dropship sped towards them, taking a few minutes to swoop down to the spaceport and screech to a landing. As the ramp extended, Jeica and Akilina paced over to the small ship to greet the occupants. A peek at the interior confirmed that they hadn't come in full good faith mode; two armed marines were seated in the passenger bay behind the lightly-armed pilots. However, Jeica's attention was grabbed by the well-dressed officer with the thick moustache and friendly smile.

"Hello American!" he bellowed, extending his hand in greeting. Jeica tentatively shook it, admiring his strong grip, confident and relaxed even in his vulnerable position. "I see you have taken good care of our soldier." She had to commend the man on his English as Akilina nodded and made her way inside the ship. The thick Russian accent was there, but he seemed to know his way around the language much better than Sokolov did. "I must thank you, it is not often an American will offer help so willingly with international relations the way they are."

Akilina murmured something in Russian faster than Jeica could follow, catching the officer's attention for a moment and making him turn around. He was beaming knowingly when he turned back to face the lieutenant. "Ah, rebels. I see. Do not fear, it is none of our business. In fact, I personally encourage you. Perhaps you can help restore our race to our former greatness – perhaps even greater," he added, eyes roaming to Soyuznik, who had oddly enough shown up of his own accord to see Akilina off. Jeica could tell the man was enraptured by the unique alien, and probably had a million questions to ask, but he knew how to keep his curiosity in check.

"I sure hope so, but the Wey-Yu seems pretty hard to topple. Even if we get rid of them in one nation, they still have footholds in the others and could easily instate a war, like what used to happen on Earth." For some reason, this just made the man smirk some more.

"We shall see," he supplied cryptically. "But we like the Wey-Yu just as little as the next nation, so if you ever need some help, your friend knows how to contact us. For now, as thank you, we shall leave a parting gift." He gestured towards the sky, and Jeica couldn't help but gawk at the display through the clouds. Two cruisers were being ejected from the main vessel, thrusters firing to bring them into stable orbit around the planet. "The controls are in Russian, but an experienced pilot should have no trouble still."

"You're… giving us… those ships?" Jeica asked hesitantly, eyebrow arched high with scepticism. The officer just shrugged as he ducked back into his dropship.

"Actions speak louder than words, so keep an eye on the news, maybe then you'll understand. For now, I bid you farewell American; we wouldn't want to stick around too long and draw any attention to your colony."

"Dosvedanya!" Akilina called from within the shuttle, leaning forward in her seat to offer the ground party a wave. Soyuznik raised a big hand awkwardly and waved back, until the loading door whirred shut and the thrusters fired up again. Jeica and the Xeno stepped away to a safe distance and watched it speed away. Not long afterwards, the gigantic cruiser broke away from the planet's gravity and hurtled away towards its next destination. Jeica didn't know whether they were high-tailing it back to Russian space or proceeding to some kind of cover-up job, and frankly, she didn't care. Currently, all she wanted to do was get those two ships scanned, swept and converted into a language she could read.

~~~~~~~~~~(A Week Later)~~~~~~~~~~

And just like that, Jake was blinking away the 'sleep', the bright lights and white walls of the cryo room slowly shaking off their blurs and taking solid shape before him. Through the rush of blood in his ears his hearing was swimming back to him, muffled at first as if he was underwater, then giving way to Wham!, Tyler apparently having no trouble forcing his music tastes on Larry during the trip. Good thing it was decent music or he might have felt sorry for the android.

"Left me sleeping, in my bed. I was dreaming, but I should've been with you instead! Wake me up, before you go go, don't leave me hangin' on like a yo-yo." Jake groaned and hoisted himself out of his pod, glancing over to his side and doing his best to ignore his headache. The loud music wasn't making it any better, as much as he liked the song. Advena slopped out of her own pod unsteadily, thumping onto the ground in an ungainly heap.

"I don't feel so good…" she complained.

"Yeah, first time's a bitc–" Advena suddenly choked out a stream of thin, transparent bile right before his eyes. Empathetic as he was, Jake retched and immediately turned his eyes away. "Dear lord give me some warning next time!"

"I'm sorry, I think I'm gonna –" Advena didn't get to finish her sentence as a shudder wracked her body and her mental efforts were directed towards gagging. Jake blocked his ears and headed out of the room, not that either action would do much good as he could feel his partner's stomach churning within her body.

"Wake me up, before you go go, 'cause I'm not planning on goin' solo. Wake me up, before you go go, take me dancing tonight."

"Tyler, turn that down before I 'go go' out the airlock; my head is killing me," he grizzled as he stepped into the rec room. Somehow, he didn't have it in him to be surprised at the fact the place had been turned into a makeshift workshop. A table had been pushed into the corner and stacked with tools and scraps to act as a workbench, and a laptop had been set up in the opposite corner with what appeared to be a set of blueprints on screen, as well as a small window opened with a picture of some faded Wham! album art. The scientist himself was lounging in a comfortable chair, snapping his fingers along with the tune with one hand, while the other used a stylus to draw intricate patterns on the PDA perched upon his knee. Tyler placed his stylus on the screen and dragged down, prompting a volume bar to appear on the laptop's screen across the room. Thankfully, Tyler had mercy and did as he was asked without comment or question, and even went so far to glance up at his friend with a self-satisfied smirk.

"Mornin' sleepyhead. Sweet dreams?"

"Ugh, I didn't dream at all," Advena whined with another shiver. "It was really unnerving; it's like no time passed at all."

"Well, clearly your body's lying to you 'Vee, as I happen to have gotten a lot of work done in the last week. Nearly blew up the ship with that alien device I've been pulling apart – that would've been fun. But it's under control now, and is in fact a very robust weapon which I've incorporated into my kit. Check it." Tyler raised his wrist, revealing the strangely synergetic amalgamation of alien and human tech. A small screen was mounted onto an armoured glove, followed by a digital watch mounted on the wrist section and two alien ridges which, when prompted by a trigger on the device, flicked out two wicked, serrated blades. "Now whenever I body-swap with Sal, he'll still have claws to work with." Tyler giggled at his quip and sheathed the blades again. "Now I really do feel like a little junior badass."

"Don't let it get to your head," Jake advised him, though he found the reasoning sound. Maybe he should invest in having some kind of bladed weapon other than his combat knife, something Advena would be more comfortable using should she ever need to take over his body. Sure he and Jeica had drilled into her that she should favour the provided armaments over her natural weapons, but her instincts had her returning to the latter every, single, god-damned, frustration-filled time.

"We're in high orbit now – they've probably picked us up on scanners so I hope you plan on making a move soon." Jake nodded, plucking a bottle of water from the mini fridge in the room and taking long gulps in an attempt to quell the pounding in his head.

"Alright, armour on everyone; we head out as soon as possible," he commanded as he spied the other four hanging back in the doorway. "That includes you, Tyler."

"I already am in my armour," the scientist chided him, spreading his arms so Jake could observe his apparel. Jake was not impressed, to say the least. They were the same clothes he'd been wearing when he'd come aboard and lacked any form of ballistic protection.

"You've got to be kidding me. There's spare armour in the back, go grab yourself something which won't blow up when our enemies so much as look at it."

"I am not dragging around a full set of steel plates. If you guys are any good at your job, I won't need it."

"You're wearing a vest at the very least, and that's final," Jake snapped, then about-faced and went to retrieve his own gear. He helped his partner into her own custom-built armour from the Advena Project, feeling just a little guilty that the other Xenos didn't get the same luxury, but ultimately getting over it to face the situation at hand. "Tyler," he barked once everyone was geared up, "can you get me the schematics in here?"

"Aye aye Sir." Tyler tossed a small projector onto his workshop table moodily, leaving Jake to just be thankful he was still cooperating. Why the hell had Jeica wanted a mentally-unstable ex-turncoat on this mission again? "Main entrance is here, with maintenance entrances by the waste processing plant over here, and the roof's radio tower access here," the scientist explained, pointing out the places of interest on the holographic map the projector had sprung into life. "Archives are here, near the communications area, so our easiest path is through the radio tower. However, chemical storage is here, on the other side of the facility, near the waste disposal, and the live specimen storage is near the centre. So, we can either split up our forces to hit multiple targets at once, or try to sweep our objectives one by one and hope the staff don't enact asset termination procedures."

"We enter through the main airlock," Jake decided. "Stick together, get to live specimen containment first and secure any potential Xenomorph allies. By that point, most of the security will be cleared out, so we can split into two groups to check out the remaining two objectives."

"Well then, let's land this bucket shall we?" Tyler remarked, already sweeping out of the room towards the cockpit. Jake decided to follow along, just in case.

"I'm perfectly capable of activating the automatic landing procedures by myself," Larry grunted from his seat at the pilot's console.

"Scoot," Tyler demanded, shooing the android away with his hands. "There are no automatic landing procedures – those are handled by the facility's spaceport marshal AI, which happens to be under the control of the very same people who would like to see us crash into the side of a mountain. We go in manual." Larry sighed and shifted into the co-pilot's seat, triggering Tyler's infuriatingly self-satisfied smirk as he plopped himself into the formerly-occupied chair. "You have any training?"

"All industrial synthetics are outfitted with basic operation protocols; I know my ignition from my self-destruct sequence."

"Good, that means I can tell you to do things and look smart in front of this lot. Switching to manual." Tyler reached down to the small console screen which separated the two seats and clicked a hefty switch with practiced ease. "Standby to break orbit. We'll need a retrograde burn from the primary thrusters."

"Manoeuvring," Larry confirmed as he ran his fingers across his controls. The middle console screen began displaying his changes, showing the ship flipping around in relation to the planet. A small arrow on the surface was likely their target landing zone.

"Give me a three-second burn."

"Three second retrograde burn." Larry turned a dial up and the engines rumbled to life. The display changed from an orbital view to a surface view, a curved line striking the surface quite a ways off another arrow. "Trajectory's off."

"We'll re-align once we're in atmosphere. Direct the heat plates… let's say thirty degrees off landing horizon."

"Jake, where's the food?" Advena grumbled from the other room, forcing the sergeant to duck out and confront her.

"I wouldn't, if I were you," he advised her, stepping into the living quarters' kitchen. She had just discovered the cupboard full of vacuum-sealed MREs and was currently tearing into one.

"I feel fine now, don't worry." Jake huffed, but let it slide. She was a Xeno after all, perhaps their bodies worked differently? All he knew for sure was that he intended to give himself a couple of hours before attempting eating something. Something about suspended animation makes you really queasy for a few hours after you wake up – probably all the body's organs booting back up from technical death. Advena, for her part, tore into the preserved meal without even bothering to heat it, causing a little dribble of soup to run down her chin in her ravenous hunger.

"Ugh, you're messing up your armo –" Jake had to stop in half surprise as Advena quickly dunked her head in the sink and violently threw everything back up before most of it even had time to settle in her stomach. He reflexively retched and bent over double, trying his best not to follow in his lover's footsteps. "God damn it 'Vee." A pitiful moan was all he got in response, Advena's body clinging limply to the sink's lip, not bothering to lift her head from the cold metal. He sighed and left her to recover, opting instead to arrange equipment with the others.

The four others were waiting in the cargo hold near the crates stacked with gear, arms folded and leaning against the hull as they waited. "McDain, you any good with explosives?" The corporal nodded, casting an unsure glance towards his Xeno.

"Yeah… are we going to let them run out like that?" He gestured towards his companion to emphasise the point. "I mean, Advena gets armour…" Jake grimaced, but he'd already run through the same questions himself several times, so the answer was simple.

"We're lucky she does; it's the only Xenomorph armour ever manufactured, and it's custom-built to fit her. I'll take it up with the lieutenant when we get things sorted out back home, but for now we'll have to rely on stealth, speed and precision to get us through this mission. Alright?"

"Easy for you to say," McDain muttered under his breath, but the lack of anger in his voice showed clearly he understood, and didn't blame Jake in the slightest. "Alright. So what's the plan? They're going to have a firing squad set up on the other side of that airlock."

"We set up a firing squad of our own. I want you on charges, so fill your pockets with C4. Burtz, I'm relying on you for extra ammo – we're gonna need it. Tyler can handle the hack tools, Advena can carry the deployable shields, I'll put Sal on heavy weapons and I'll need the Warrior here to carry a couple of auto-turrets." The ship shook briefly as they hit atmosphere hard, initiating re-entry. It wouldn't be long now.

"Alright Skater, let's get you geared up. We can probably use a couple of munition belts to strap these turrets to your back, free up your hands and make carrying them a little easier," McDain hummed, circling around his partner as he thought aloud. Burtz was quieter, opting instead to root through a few crates looking for a suitable bag to carry equipment in. Her Spitter Xenomorph stood around a little awkwardly, having not been assigned anything to do.

"So what's the story with her name?" Jake asked idly, hoping to strike up a conversation and maybe get on friendlier terms with the marines. McDain smirked, but didn't take his eyes off his work, carefully placing detonators and packs of plastic explosives into his vest pockets.

"She likes to run a lot, but she's, uh… bulky. Bulky I said damn you, it is not the same as fat. Anyway, she's good at the speeding up, but not so much at the slowing down, so she ends up skidding across anything smoother than steel grating. And crashing into walls, more often than not. A bit of a klutz, but a real sweetie." He patted the alien's face fondly, earning himself a purr. "Here, stand still a moment would you?" Jake watched the marine sling three belts strapped together over his companion's shoulder, ducking under her arm to secure it at the back. It was a little awkward having to weave it between her spines in a way which would be comfortable for her, but he managed, eventually stepping back to admire his handiwork. "Not a bad look for you Skates. Slip a couple of turrets in that bad boy and you'll have those Wey-Yu bastards shitting their pants."

"What about you?" Jake asked the private. Burtz glanced up from her crate of pistol magazines, seemingly startled.

"What, Loco? It's like… Spanish, or something. Means crazy." Not much of a talker then. So be it. Jake let her be and began gathering up equipment for Advena. A strong solider could carry one of the heavy-duty shields, but a Xenomorph… he thought deeply about how it felt to be in 'Vena's body, and decided three was a good number. At the sound of his thought process, the Xeno in question stumbled into the room, pushing her helmet out of her eyes lopsidedly.

"I'm… I'm alright now. Let's get geared up. And uh, I think my helmet needs adjusting." Jake shook his head bemusedly and set to the task.

"Thirty seconds," Tyler told them over the intercom. "Don't forget breather units."

"You heard the man. Suit up." The marines approached the airlock one by one, grabbing a pair of lightweight EVA breathers. The atmosphere on the planet was cold, but not enough to warrant a full suit, especially considering they would only be outside for a few minutes. The lack of any usable forms of oxygen, however, was a problem. Jake fitted his own half-mask on first, a small pipe leading from its bottom to a small pack which clipped onto the belt – enough to provide half an hour of air. "Uh…" He glanced from his lover, to the other marines, who were staring right back at him, awaiting directions, masks in their hands while they stood dumbly opposite their Xenos. Nobody had any idea how to secure them to the aliens' faces.

"We can survive without air much longer than humans can," Advena assured him. "Haven't you ever heard stories of Xenomorphs in the vacuum of space?"

"I'm not happy about it, but you have a point, and we can't exactly do much about it now," Jake conceded. The ship jolted suddenly, and the engines began dying down, signalling they had landed. Jake turned to the hallway expectantly, and sure enough, Tyler waltzed in a moment later with Sal at his side. The scientist already had a mask on and his jacket zipped up in preparation for the ordeal to come.

"You wanted me to carry some things?" Sal asked the sergeant, distracting him from all thoughts of lecturing Tyler on bringing a vest. He pointed to a small pile he'd set aside, consisting of a small, tube-like rocket launcher and a hefty light machine gun.

"Yeah, thought it might be a good idea to bring some extra firepower Jeica so kindly provided us with. Just in case their security is a little beefier than Tyler remembers; it has been a few years, after all." Sal nodded and slung the weapons over his shoulder, along with a MK221 Tactical Shotgun. In a surprisingly knowledgeable display, the Xeno also plucked an under-barrel arc round launcher and began attaching it to his weapon. Either he was getting some lessons in advance of his peers, or Tyler knew a hell of a lot more about weapons than he let on. The scientist himself was armed only with a single pistol holstered at his left thigh and his tools which he stashed in a small satchel, much to Jake's dismay.

"We ready to go, Sir?" McDain queried anxiously. Jake took a deep breath, steeled himself, and nodded. Now began his first time leading real people on a real mission; these lives were in his hands. The usual doubts flitted through his mind, but there was no room for that now, the cargo bay door was already opening. A strong, reassuring hand wrapped itself around his, and Advena's lightly-armoured face nuzzled him gently.

"We go in, we shoot some bad guys, we grab the stuff we need, we get out. Easy peasy." Jake hopped down out of the ship first, motioning Advena to join him.

"Alright team," he announced, voice slightly muffled by the chilling winds and the deep breaths he was drawing from his mask. "Advena and I will take point, Skater and Loco can take up the rear, McDain, Burtz, please do your best to keep Tyler from getting shot." The group approached the intimidating airlock doors, massive in size so it could fit trucks and cargo loaders, signs of a much busier time. In fact, the place seemed very empty and almost run down. It had been a few years, Jake reminded himself, what if the place had been shut down? Well, all the better for them; all that meant was it would be even easier to grab what they needed.

Tyler set to work, kneeling down next to the airlock controls and fetching his bypass tool from his bag. While he fiddled with the wiring, Jake turned to Advena uncertainly. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked privately. It was unnerving to watch her, her chest so still as she refused to draw breath, no clouds of warmth being thrown into the air by her gaping maw despite the cold. It was like she wasn't really alive.

"I'm fine, Jake. Xenomorphs are perfect organisms, remember?" Jake scoffed at her, though citing the crazed Ash's words brought him to thinking about the android currently sitting in their ship. What if Tyler was right? What if there were still Wey-Yu protocols coded into Larry, even if he didn't know about it? There were so many ways this mission could go wrong.

"And voila, piece of cake," Tyler announced with his usual flair a second before the airlock began rumbling open. "Showtime Jacob." The sergeant nodded and took the first step inside the massive space. The inner airlock door was all that separated them from the firing squad which no doubt awaited them, but at least they had plenty of space within to set up their counter-attack.

"Just stop worrying about what could go wrong and take things one step at a time, we'll be fine," Advena advised him as she took up position behind him, sliding a single shield off her back. "Don't worry, I've already read your plan right out of your head; I'll get this set up while you tell the others." True to her word, Advena unravelled the heavy package, revealing three sturdy pikes strung together with wire like deadly Christmas lights and two thick chunks of metal. She stabbed the pikes into the ground, using the wire as a guide of how far apart they should be, and once satisfied, pushed a button at each of their bases, activating the pressurised tips, which were forced deep into the concrete floor with a sharp hiss. Advena hefted one of the metal sheets and slid it between two of the pikes, repeating the process with the other until she was left with a thick, sternum-height (for humans, that is) wall which was well embedded into the ground. Not even a rocket launcher would knock this cover over.

In the meantime, Jake directed the two other Xenomorphs to take up positions on the roof, where they took out the lights, plunging the airlock into darkness. Sal handed the LMG from his back to Burtz, enabling the four humans to take up positions behind their cover. Together, the two sheets made a wall about four metres long, just enough to fit them all behind.

"Hey boss, what about the turrets?" McDain queried, pointing to his Warrior companion. Jake shook his head.

"We need those for when we hit the archives. If Tyler's going to do a thorough job, we're going to need to stick around for a while. We can block up the two entrances with the shields and the turrets, so I don't really want to risk them getting damaged now." McDain nodded in understanding and checked his M4RA Battle Rifle. "We ready Tyler?"

"Just say the word."

"Go." Tyler glanced over his shoulder to ensure his body was fully hidden by the shield before tapping his PDA screen, triggering the airlock's cycle remotely. The door they'd come in through rumbled shut over the course of an agonising ten seconds, followed by the steady hiss of the planet's atmosphere being replaced with breathable nitrogen-oxygen mixture. Finally, all noise ceased for a beat; the moment of truth was upon them.

With a mournful groan, the heavy metal bulkhead which led into the facility split in half and began rolling down its tracks, causing light to flood into the airlock weakly, barely illuminating the floor a few metres in. Immediately after the door had opened half a metre, the shield was pelted by three objects. "Were those –?" Tyler whispered concernedly, but was cut off by the explosions which shook the room and tore a pipe loose from the ceiling. Oxygen began shrieking in through the new hole in the room, the airlock's system now compromised.

"Suppressive fire," Jake murmured to his team as he readied his Pulse Rifle. In the darkness, it was likely that it would take them a few seconds to be spotted – plenty of time to turn overwhelming odds in one's favour; this would be a cake walk. He motioned to Burtz, who was in the middle of the three marines, prompting her to pop her torso up over their cover and rest her weapon's body on the lip in one swift movement. Her finger tightened on the trigger, followed by Jake and McDain, unleashing a hail of bullets on their enemies.

In the second Jake had to acquaint himself with the next room, he managed to pick out their enemies – twelve Weyland-Yutani security personnel all poised to tear apart anything which came out of the airlock – standing mostly out in the open in a small lobby-type entry area. The back of the room was capped off by a security checkpoint which would automatically allow people through once ID was presented. Much of the room was dominated by large digital posters of the Wey-Yu's technological and scientific achievements, accompanied by several benches for newcomers to wait in. Two of the opposing soldiers – if they could be called that; they were more akin to police officers if anything – were pressed around the corners where the airlock opened up into the comparatively-larger lobby, while the rest were exposed and relying completely on having the home advantage over invaders.

Now, however, they were scattering as bullets zipped by inaccurately, the marines having not had the time to aim yet. Regardless, one security officer was clipped on the shoulder before he could be yanked out of the line of fire by his comrades. Jake gave Advena the mental go-ahead, so she began leading the Xenos out of the airlock, along the roof where the officers wouldn't be looking. No, they would be far more concentrated on where the bullets were coming from. While she did so, Jake held up a closed fist, and his fellow soldiers dutifully let up their fire and crouched down to expose as little of their bodies as possible while still maintaining their view of the room.

"If you surrender, we won't hurt you!" he called out. "You don't have to die for those Corporate bastards!"

"We won't surrender to terrorists!" a warbling, but determined voice yelled back from within the room. Jake sighed and turned to Burtz.

"We shoot at their feet and the Xenos will attack from the rear. Clear?"

"Roger." She slid her LMG back into position and resumed firing at the positions the officers had retreated to, keeping them pinned down while McDain scanned for anyone brave enough to stick their head out. One such man revealed himself when Burtz switched from one side of the room to the other, giving him an opportunity to bounce out and raise his pistol. A single shot to his armoured chest sent him to the floor with the force of the high-calibre impact, and another to the kneecap ensured he wouldn't get back up.

Finally, the aliens struck. Cringe-worthy screams of pain filled the air for a few moments, accompanied by sporadic gunfire, until it just as suddenly gave way to groaning and panting. The marines vaulted over their shield and waltzed into the room, guns at their hips just in case.

To either side of them, security officers were on the floor, clutching injuries and hissing, moaning or sobbing softly. Advena earned herself a grateful nod and half-hearted smile from Jake when he noted no casualties, only pretty major lacerations all over their bodies – from claws, tails and teeth.

"Look at their weapons. Pistols, one rifle, and one shotgun. Who the hell is running this place?" Advena hissed in resentment. By all means, she was grateful the security in this place was useless, but that didn't stop the facts from cementing her hatred of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.

Surprisingly, Tyler knelt down next to one of the injured security officers and slid an emergency medical bag from his satchel, his mouth a grim line of determination. He lined up disinfectant, gauze and biospray neatly before yanking on rubber gloves and setting to work.

"Keep pushing for the other objectives. Sal and I will meet you at the archives."

"We are not –" Jake tried to say, but Tyler was having none of it.

"You either stay here and help me tend to these men, or you save time and do the things you don't need me for. That's as far as I'm willing to negotiate on this matter, Sergeant." Jake had to admit, it was quite nice to see Tyler sticking to his moral code, and sparing the guards death at the hands of Xenomorphs wouldn't mean much if they bled out in the lobby. Jake signalled his marines to form up.

"Alright, Skater, leave them a turret here – I trust you'll be able to carry it to the archives, Sal?" A nod. "Good. Move the injured behind the shield and do your thing there, just to be safe. I'll radio in when we've finished searching chemical storage and specimen containment, at which point you move out regardless of whether you're finished here. Clear?"

"Whatever you say," Tyler muttered noncommittally. Jake got the feeling he wouldn't budge from this area until he was done, but considering their objectives, he would probably finish up well before they reached the archives.

"Let's go people." Sal dutifully accepted a turret from Skater and placed it down for the moment, merely watching the party move on for a few seconds, until he suddenly received a mental message from Tyler, which had him scampering to Tyler's satchel in a jiffy. Jake shook his head at the inevitable disobedience of his every order, but faced forwards and led his team onwards anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~(Soon After)~~~~~~~~~~

Something wasn't right here. That much had been obvious when Jake's team had arrived at the live specimen containment, only to find the complex doused in darkness. When they'd finally found the breaker for the place, the lights had flickered on the reveal rusted walls, run-down cells and no signs of life having existed there for many, many months. The chemical storage hadn't been much better; the usual shtick was there, but nothing Xeno-related. Frustrated, Jake radioed in to Tyler while they walked to the archives.

"Tyler, come in." Static for a moment.

"Yeeeup, Tyler here. All patients are patched up and sedated. They won't come to for another couple of hours, so you don't need to worry about –"

"Tyler, specimen containment was empty, abandoned for a long time. Chemical storage was a bust too. Did you bring us to the wrong place?"

"Shit, no way, they shut this place down? Okay, okay, we can get to the bottom of this. The archives will have records – we can still salvage this."

"We're nearly there. We'll set up while you make your way over."

"Right-o, don't forget the turret Sal. No, it's already off. Oh don't be such a baby, look, I'll even prove it." Jake clicked his radio off and flicked his fingers to Advena, no communication required as she'd already picked up his request from his mind. She slid a shield off her back and began setting it up in the doorway while the marines kept moving forward into the room. Weapons drawn, they yelled intimidatingly at the staff within to step away from their consoles and kneel with their hands behind their heads. If having a few rifles pointed in their faces wasn't convincing enough, the two hulking aliens which peeled themselves out of the shadows sure as hell were.

Jake took stock of the room, searching for vulnerabilities. The circular area was lined with computer consoles and chairs with three doors leading out; two into the facility beyond, and one into the dead-end server room, which was filled solely with racks and shelves of more computing technology such as hard drives, servers and communications devices.

"Burtz, McDain, man the perimeter until Tyler gets here; I don't think either of them have an IFF on them, so we can't use the robots yet." Jake watched Advena brush past so as to access the second exit. He almost made a move to help her with setting the shield up even though it was probably easier to do alone, but McDain cut him off anyway and followed along behind her instead. Burtz left her LMG behind on her way to her post, leaving Jake alone with the prisoners and two Xenomorphs.

It didn't take long for Tyler's inappropriately-casual arrival, spearheaded by the young man sliding over one of the barricades like a Dukes of Hazard wannabe, his Xenomorph boyfriend stepping over it in a much more dignified manner soon after. He dropped the turret he'd been carrying in the doorway for McDain to set up and followed his human companion into the main area where an unimpressed Jake was waiting.

"Howdy," Tyler greeted him nonchalantly, dropping his bag in a figurative corner and setting to work on one of the consoles. "So, first thing's first? I guess we find out where our objectives disappeared to. Just give me a minute to crack the security… ah, who am I kidding? Let's just ask these guys." With speed and dexterity Jake wouldn't have thought possible, the scientist whipped his pistol out of its holster and pressed it against one of the staff's foreheads. "Password?"

"Oh god please! I don't know!" the man sobbed.

"Well, someone better had, or there's gonna be some problems here."

"For fuck's sake Tyler, put that thing away! This is not how we operate," Jake growled.

"Then it's no wonder why the Resistance never gets anything done. You wanna play this game with the Wey-Yu? You gotta play dirty, god knows they will. If you stick to honour and morals like a good boy they will walk all over you, pound you into dust and laugh at your pathetic corpse." He returned his attention to his hostage. "Now, which one of your friends knows the codes?"

"I do," a calm and level-headed voice responded, which was odd considering the circumstances. Tyler glanced over to the voice's origin, and immediately picked out the Chief of Security, staring back at him in an almost challenging manner, her expression too neutral to read. "And for god's sake Martez, have some dignity; it's not even loaded." Tyler's face split into a friendly smirk and his finger tightened on the trigger. Click. Upon further inspection, Jake realised the pistol didn't even have a clip in it. He sighed in annoyance, but relaxed. It seemed Tyler was intent on sticking to his morals after all.

"Good god Sheila, you still work in this awful place?"

"You know me, always upsetting someone, always screwing up some opportunity to transfer to a half-decent facility within twenty solar-systems of civilisation. I see you've gotten a… promotion?"

"Actually, I think my cushy job back on Reveles was better. Being an outlaw isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"The big scary murder-aliens aren't trying to murder you. That sounds like a pretty fucking good promotion to me."

"Touché. You sound interested. You know, we're doing interviews. Bring your résumé to our secret Resistance base next Monday week and we'll see if we have any positions for you. Oh, formal attire only; gotta make a good impression."

Jake cleared his throat noisily, interrupting their banter.

"We're on a time limit here, Tyler."

"E-six-nine-four-i-p-l, all lower case except the first letter," Sheila supplied them with a shrug. "But seriously, you guys actually hiring?" Tyler cast Jake a 'your call but there's only one right answer here' look while he typed in the code. The consoles flashed green, unlocking the system. "I mean, I don't wanna be a terrorist or anything, but the Tyler I know would never hurt anyone unless he had to, so I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and say you aren't who the Wey-Yu make you out to be."

"Well, we aren't, but we have an evil-twin kinda thing going on with this rebel faction called the 'Insurgents'. They're basically terrorists," Tyler explained without taking his eyes off the screen. He was performing a professional sweep of the databases, running multiple windows on multiple screens to search keywords and copy files to his wireless hard drive. "Hm, we have a problem here, Jake. The Xenos and Jelly were transferred a while back, but someone's done a pretty good job of wiping all records of the incident from the servers. I might have to check for a physical backup in the server room." Tyler jerked his thumb towards the glass doors leading into the side room as he mentioned it. "Just finding the rack number now… So, what do you guys do around here anyway? I don't remember there being much here except live specimen stuff. Damn, do they still have the biodome? I loved that place."

"Yeah, they still have the biodome – nothing in it anymore though; the caretakers got transferred," Sheila answered dismissively. "We don't exactly have much to do around here – we mostly just archive experimental tech that the execs shove to the back shelf. We had a visit from a high-class guy a while back – a Weyland, Seto by name if I remember correctly."

"Seto Weyland?" Tyler repeated, pausing his work with a broody expression. "I know the name."

"Wait, Weyland as in the American family who founded the corporation centuries ago?" Jake demanded.

"No, not really. They all died off soon before the merge with Yutani," Tyler waved him off. "It's just a tradition for the more important Company personnel to take Weyland or Yutani as their last name in order to stop people like us from finding their families and taking them hostage or killing them or something. Seto though… didn't think he was the type to come out to the shitty rim worlds in person."

"Pretty sure it was unofficial business, but I don't give two shits about those guys, so I let him do as he does, and he did. He didn't leave with any of the junk stored here though, so I think he was just sifting through records – probably after some of the genetic mutation experiment logs done here a while back, long before I got here. You know him well?"

"Me?" Tyler scoffed. "There's no way they'd let someone like me near someone like him; I'm surprised he was even able to get this far away from the core worlds without a war fleet on his tail. No, we did a few collaborations; long-distance stuff. I'd send him some blueprints, he'd send some back. He's actually the reason the Wey-Yu rejected me as a techie and left me to rot out here on the rim worlds instead of creating super weapons in the core sector. See, I like to leave backdoors in my creations, as an added security measure. Seto made it his pastime to sift through my blueprints and take the backdoors out, while pointing them out to his superior and getting me on the shit list. The execs don't like having loopholes in their tech because that means someone like me or Seto can access it whenever we want. But hey, it's also the only way those dickheads can stop us from using it, so steal as many mech suits, ships, tanks and super-weapons as you want; without a backdoor, they can't stop you."

Tyler smirked at the thought, leaning against the console for a moment as he stared off into space. "Ah, that would be nice. I would be in one of those battle mechs with a million missiles pointed at Seto's face. 'Go on, shut me down smart guy. Oh, what's that? You can't? Well, if only you had a backdoor'. Stupid shit-eating beurocrats."

"This guy really pisses you off," Jake noted amusedly, folding his arms and grinning with interest. It was always nice to see someone else get under Tyler's skin for once.

"Well, apart from single-handedly condemning me to resort to fucking aliens and hanging out with you guys for friends –"

"Ouch," Jake mumbled.

"– He also happens to be incredibly smart. As smart as me, maybe even smarter." Well, that would certainly make Tyler mad, Jake thought to himself. "Which means he is also incredibly dangerous, so wipe that shit-eating grin off your face. When the Wey-Yu successfully replicates the Advena project and gets Xenos on their side, you can bet your ass Seto will be the one inventing all the tech to go with it. Anything I make for us, Seto will make something five times better, because he has infinite money and resources at his disposal while I have a bunch of dumbasses and a few guns."

"You're making things for us?"

"Well… I've been trying to cobble together a few things… mostly just researching how Bonds and telepathy work so far, but you know… a few side projects around…"

"I didn't know you cared." And even though he was being a sarcastic ass about it, Jake was genuinely touched that Tyler was putting work into helping them, despite his frequent spouts of pessimism.

"Rack F-22. Got it." Just like that, the conversation was over, and Tyler was back to work. He sauntered over to the server room doors, having to pick his way through the various officers, picking up hushed whispers from the scared staff as he did so.

"Where the hell is Strass?" one asked worriedly.

"Why the fuck are you helping the terrorists?" another hissed at Sheila. It was probably bad that they were confident enough to talk amongst themselves – they should be scared and whimpering, because pissed pants were better than having to shed the blood of people who try to play hero.

The doors hissed open when prompted by Tyler, and he took a moment to scan the room for the rack he needed. A, B, C, D –

Boom.

Tyler's body was flung at the wall, where he crumpled onto the ground, lying flat on his back, eyes wide and staring blankly at the ceiling. Jake's rifle swung round to bear at the security officer in the darkness of the server room, but he wasn't quick enough. Sal leapt at the offending man, knocking the smoking shotgun out of his arms and slamming him onto the floor with his momentum. Jake cringed and had to look away when Sal's claws tore into the man's chest and flung bloody chunks left and right, accompanied by a headache-inducing scream of rage. The marine decided to make himself more useful by sliding to his friend's side and checking over his injuries.

"F-fuck!" Tyler cried, his voice cracking slightly. Alive. Good. There were several singed holes in Tyler's jacket where the buckshot had torn through, but no signs of blood. Jake shakily unzipped the jacket, and heaved a sigh of relief. The pellets from the shotgun were mashed into ugly blobs after smashing against the sturdy bullet-proof vest beneath. Tyler had actually listened. Thank god. And as much as he wanted to rub it into the stubborn, condescending scientist's face, he didn't want to discourage this kind of behaviour in future, so he simply unstrapped the vest and began pressing against Tyler's rib cage carefully.

Tyler hissed in pain, but Jake couldn't feel anything moving in ways it shouldn't.

"Alright, you're okay. Some bruising, probably, but nothing's broken. We can check for any cracking once we get you to a med bay, but you'll be alright to move." Tyler nodded, still a little disoriented.

"Yeah… yeah, okay… I might… I might just lie here for a bit… catch my breath…"

Jake swapped places with Sal, allowing the alien to comfort his boyfriend, but not before grimacing at the blood dripping from his claws.

"Jesus fuck," Sheila commented as Jake stepped past her. A couple of the security staff had thrown up, and more than a few others were looking very pale and shaky. "Are you sure you have those things under control?"

"People tend to get a little angry when you try to kill their lovers," was Jake's answer, though he knew that he had a lot of rules to lay down, with the help of Jeica, once they got back to the colony. He shook the thoughts from his mind for now, and instead found rack F and ran his fingers down all the boxes and blinking lights until he came across one plastered with the number '22'. He hastily retrieved it and high-tailed back to the command room, doing his best to ignore the mangled corpse in the doorway. "Someone put a fucking blanket or coat or something over that man, would you?"

Tyler himself shrugged off his hole-riddled bomber jacket and held it out, swapping it for the server back-up Jake had retrieved. It was oddly touching, seeing the normally-snarky Tyler so sobered and sincere, and surprisingly not even angry at his would-be murderer. Must be his moral code, Jake reasoned as he laid the coat over the worst of the body. The pool of blood and legs still stuck from beneath the makeshift cover, but at least the gaping hole and exposed rib cage were hidden from sight.

"So… you date hulking space monsters now?" Sheila asked awkwardly, trying to break the sickening tension in the room, but her heart wasn't in it. She couldn't blame the alien, all things considered, but still…

"He's not usually like this. Xenomorphs can be a little… overprotective, I guess. It's cute when there's no murder involved," Tyler mumbled, still in shock if his shaky hands and frequent typing errors were anything to go by. "There's not a lot left; whoever did this wipe was pretty thorough, but I've found some files with the same time stamps which could be related, I'll let you know if I find anything good."

In the meantime, Jake picked up one of the two shotguns which had fallen nearby the man's corpse, slapping it against Sal's stomach.

"You have a gun, Sal," he growled. "Next time, use it." Sal nodded and placed his hands over the weapon, holding it to his body as if he were a child and it were his security blanket. He would have to make sure the other Xenos got that drilled into their heads too; there was no way in hell the general public would accept them as a benevolent force if this was how they operated. Even Jake was having second guesses about their alien allies being on the field, and he was the one who started this whole thing in the first place.

"Okay, there's a few files here which match the general time period of the wipe which may prove useful," Tyler announced, breaking Jake away from his thoughts. "This one's an interview with a CEO, looks like it has something to do with the asset movement." The video in question appeared on all the console screens in the room, one of which Jake wandered over to in order to watch. Static gave way to a dark room with a table in the centre, a pool of yellow light illuminating its surface. The camera was at one end of the table, facing the man on the other side. He looked to be in his mid-thirties with a black five o'clock shadow running neatly across the lower half of his face. With the way the light was angled, you could barely make out his hazel eyes peering at the person behind the camera and slicked-back black hair.

"Please state your name for the records," the off-camera person asked in an authoritative voice.

"What is this, an interrogation?" the man at the table asked with a slight smirk.

"No, it's a re-evaluation of your status as CEO of Colonial Laboratory ZN-782, so I would appreciate it if you would take this seriously and follow protocol. Name?" The man sighed and leaned his elbows on the table.

"Abraham Halm. Happy?"

"Incredibly." The monotonous voice didn't sound very happy. "Now, allow me to retrieve the files…" The sound of paper shuffling before the disembodied voice continued. "You requested that the Queen egg be used upon a specific personnel, is this correct?"

"Yeah."

"Which was… you?" An emotion in the voice this time – confusion? Concern? Bemusement? They didn't give much away.

"'Sright."

"You've stumped me, Mister Halm. The psychiatric evaluations have come back in the clear, and bar insanity, we have no idea what would prompt such a desire. It would please us greatly if you would offer an explanation."

"A week ago, you told me you were moving some Xenos from a weapons lab to my colony on Ulterin, and then told me that my team would be in charge of further research. The aforementioned research would include hatching the live specimens from my staff."

"That is correct."

"Well, I don't know how you guys like to operate, but… well, I've gotta be blunt here. I'm in charge of this colony, and I make a habit of not making my personnel do anything I wouldn't. If they're all going to be impregnated by Xenos, then I'm gonna go first. Positive reinforcement is a more powerful incentive than threat of punishment – surely you people would know this by now."

There was a thoughtful silence from the other occupant of the room, but Halm didn't seem to be threatened by it. If anything, he seemed satisfied, perhaps because he was having the intended effect on his interrogator.

"Perhaps you're right about that," the voice agreed tentatively. "New approaches are always welcome in this field, I suppose. So, I am to assume the reason you have picked the Queen to impregnate you over a simple drone is purely symbolic?"

"Well, it ain't to stoke my ego, if that's what you're asking."

"I like to be thorough, Mister Halm. We don't need a megalomaniac on our hands." The papers were shuffled once more, and a briefcase clicked shut.

"So, did I pass professor? My mom's gonna kill me if I go back home with an F."

"Your request has been granted. End of session." Click. The screens went dark, before flickering back to the directory in which Tyler had found the video.

"Ulterin," Tyler repeated. "It can't be too far from here; we don't have to go home empty-handed."

"Absolutely not," Jake growled. "We head straight back home and report to the Lieutenant. We don't have intel on this place, or any guarantee of finding anything. What's more, Jeica will send a search party after us if we're late back. We cannot risk such a colossal waste of resources. We're moving out. McDain! Burtz! Pack it up, we're done here!"

"And what about me?" Sheila demanded. "These guys are gonna report me, and you know that's a death sentence, especially considering what went down here." That gave Jake pause. Could they take her with them? A week was a long time for something to go wrong…

"She can have my pod," Tyler reasoned. "Can't do anything if she's frozen. I still don't trust the robot enough to use it anyway." Jake couldn't argue with that logic, and so nodded, motioning for the security chief to stand.

"Here, you'll need this," Jake told her as he held out his spare mask. "We'll take the elevator to external comms and high-tail it to the ship from there. Walk in the park." And so, without any trouble to speak of, they did.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Planet Ulterin, High Orbit
1423 hours
Mission Time: N/A
Unnamed Squad

"You fucking asshole."

Tyler was unmoved by his friend's words, his ass planted firmly on his makeshift workbench in the rec room.

"Relax, it's three days, and I've already radioed ahead," Tyler drawled, not seeing the trouble with his actions. Using sly manipulation, he'd convinced Larry the only way for the colonists to truly come to trust synthetics was if he let him change course. "The corporation changes its code base every month, so it was now or never really. We broadcast the codes I stole from the last place, we march down there in Wey-Yu uniforms with the big scary Xenomorphs and declare we have live specimens in need of containment. Look, I even made fake collars for them to wear."

Tyler motioned towards his work bench, and true to his word, four large, metal rings lay idly with green lights blinking dramatically by their clasps. "Come on, you know I wouldn't do this without thinking it through. I've had three days, remember? Trust me, we can do this. We need to do this. We need that Queen so we can get our Hive up and running and beef up our forces and actually put up a half-fucking-decent fight."

"You went against my orders!" Jake snapped back. "You've put everyone's lives in danger because of your massive ego and ignored everything I've said! What if they moved the Xenos again? What if the last place radioed ahead and warned them we might come? We could be walking right into a trap."

"Okay, listen here you bigoted idiot. You kidnapped me, stole my peaceful life away from me, turned my lover into a hive-mind sheep and wrapped me up in your stupid war – which you're going to lose – against my will. You can't just pull that shit then tell me you don't want me. So how about you gear up and get into character, because we're going to infiltrate a Weyland-Yutani colony, and that's the final word on the matter."

"We're already here," Advena put in. "We might as well follow through." Jake nodded. Yeah, it would be nice to have a Queen around, to breed more Xenomorphs, expand the Hive, pair up all the Unbonded with companions to –

"Advena," Jake barked. "Stop." The rose-tinted thoughts slowly snaked out of his mind with an emotion of apology from his lover, leaving him with his seething anger once more. He sighed and picked up his Pulse rifle from where it had been leaning against the wall. "Fine, we stick to your plan. But if we get made, you follow my every order to the letter. Got it?"

"Yessir," Tyler replied, sliding off the table with the self-satisfied smirk that made Jake want to strangle him. The scientist headed off to the cabin and began establishing contact with the colony below, leaving Jake to organise his men and give them a run-down.

~~~~~~~~~~()~~~~~~~~~~

Advena's hiss provoked genuine fear in Jake for a moment, before he remembered who she was and that it was all an act. He was leading the small group down the ramp and into the colony while Burtz and McDain took up the rear, keeping their weapons trained on the aliens' backs while simultaneously serving as a shield between them and their 'charge', Tyler, who wielded nothing but a dud remote, supposedly to control the collars.

When the heavy entry doors rumbled open, they were met with a security force welcome party. These guys weren't pushovers like the last joke of a security force either; they were full-plated visors-down-guns-up colonial marines.

"You have those things well-controlled," the commanding officer commented as his marines beefed up their 'security detail'.

"We had some pretty successful tests," Tyler replied, flourishing his remote. "But don't get too comfy; they're probably just biding their time."

"Not really the actions of a mindless animal, don't you think?" the marine shot back, a little too angrily. Jake cast an uneasy glance back at Advena. Something felt off here. Tyler grunted noncommittally, keeping a cool demeanour. Damn, he was too good at this.

"If you're implying it's cruel treatment, then I can't really answer you one way or the other; I'm not paid to question my employer's morals, I'm paid to keep these things under control." Jake glanced at his watch. In two minutes, the hack Tyler had left in place would take out the primary power, giving them a few seconds of darkness before the backup generators kicked in. That was their time to strike, and they would hopefully be in the right place when it happened.

"How much farther to the cells?" Jake demanded gruffly, trying to keep a façade of disinterested annoyance, as if this was just some stupid job he was being ordered to do every day for the past month.

"Not far," the same marine dismissed him, before returning his attention to Tyler suspiciously. "You sound like someone who knows a lot more than he's letting on. A lot more than he's paid to know. Why don't you tell me what you really think of the aliens?" Jake took a deep breath and gently slid the safety off his Pulse Rifle. He'd give Tyler another shot, but things were heating up, and he needed to be ready. Ready for this all to go horribly wrong like he'd expected.

"Are you asking my professional opinion, or something else?" Tyler inquired without faltering, though Jake, who knew his ulterior motives, could clearly see it was a tactic to bide time to create an answer.

"So now you're a professional, ay?" Well, this was backfiring. The marine held up a closed fist, and the convoy halted. "You think I'm an idiot, boy? I know what you're up to. Put that safety back on sergeant, and put your weapons on the ground, slowly. All of you." Jake's heart skipped a beat in fear. They'd been made, they'd lost the element of surprise. But how? Had Tyler's blunder really been that obvious? No, the marine had called out him readying his weapon, which meant they had eyes elsewhere. They had been expecting trouble. An ambush.

Jake sighed, pushed the safety back into place, and began lowering his weapon to the floor, already frantically sending Advena instructions mentally. Hopefully, these marines didn't know the full extent of their capabilities. Burtz and McDain were making to put their own weapons on the floor, and once there, they all straightened up and placed their feet on the guns, ready to kick them towards the soldiers who had their weapons trained on the group. But, rather than flicking their booted feet forward, they slid the guns backwards and dived away even as their Xenomorph companions snatched the weapons up and flicked the safeties off in one swift motion. "Shit!" the marine cried out in surprise. There was no cover in the corridor, which meant things would get very messy if anyone opened fire. Luckily, his team had a trick up their sleeve as well, and it was already well into motion.

Just as quickly as the weapons had been retrieved, they were knocked out of the aliens' hands by dark blurs which shot at them from the ceiling. Jake was thrown against the wall with enough force to daze him, and his arms were seized and twisted behind his back by strong, enormous and slightly bony hands. Burtz and McDain had met similar fates, while Tyler was simply held at gunpoint with his hands in the air, unarmed and non-threatening as he was in his civilian guise. The Xenomorphs were pinned down by two of their own kind each, strong ones, giving them no room to flail a single limb. "And what's your professional opinion on that, Sir?" the marine asked Tyler mockingly, his rifle trained on the scientist's chest.

"Funny thing actually, you're going to feel like a total jackass in a few seconds." The marines' leader cocked his head, and a second later Tyler's watch gave two short, shrill beeps. Then the lights cut out. Tyler's glasses flickered on, giving him night vision. Unfortunately, the opposing Xenomorphs also had their natural night vision, but Tyler had been thorough. He tapped his wrist device, and all four collars on his Xenomorph friends whined loudly and exploded into flashes of light, blinding anyone without the proper protection. That is to say, everyone who wasn't wearing Tyler's glasses. It was enough to startle the Xenomorphs pinning down his friends, allowing the four Xenos to tear free and stumble around blindly while Tyler retrieved a gun and struck its stock against the leader's head, tearing his helmet loose and forcing him to the floor. The marine raised his rifle, still trying to blink away the pain in his eyes, but Tyler smacked it aside with the back of his hand and ripped the man's pistol from its holster.

Clunk. The corridor was flooded with light just as the last soldiers recovered from the flashbang. Four collar-wearing Xenomorphs stood in the centre of a group of their own kind, brandishing a variety of mis-matched weapons they'd picked up in the confusion threateningly, while Tyler stood behind the marines' leader, a pistol pressed to the back of the helmetless man's head. Everyone was frozen with tension, not wanting to make the first move.

"So," Tyler began, "this is awkward."

"What the fuck do you want, you corporate scum?" the captive marine growled.

"Corporate…? Dude, I thought you said you were onto us!" Tyler exclaimed with a half-laugh. Then his face fell. "Wait, why did you attack us if you thought we were Wey-Yu?"

"Wait, you're not Wey-Yu? Then who sent you here?"

"I'm the one with the gun pointed at your skull, so I'll be the one asking, and you'll be the one answering."

"You didn't even turn the safety off." Jake grimaced at that. Tyler hadn't, in fact, turned the safety off for fear of accidentally letting off a round into the man's head. Stupid moral code, why had Jake ever praised him for it?

"Wanna bet your life on it, buddy?" The marine did, apparently. He whirled around, smacking the gun wide so even if it had been in a position to fire, it wouldn't hit anything. Then he rammed the palm of his hand into Tyler's chest, knocking him back, and twisted his wrist, freeing the weapon from his hand and catching it, flicking the safety off with his thumb. The weapon fell from his hand immediately afterwards when the blade of a combat knife thunked into his forearm.

"…Fuck!" he exclaimed, curling his fingers in agony. He turned, and sure enough, Sal was brandishing another knife he'd stolen from a marine's chestplate threateningly, ignoring the Xenomorphs his aliens were currently keeping at bay with low, warning hisses. One tried to push through, but was promptly thrown aside by Advena and growled at admonishingly. It was clear that none of the colony's Xenomorphs had military training like the rebels' did. The only reason the room wasn't being torn apart by a vicious and feral fight to the death was everyone was too confused as to what was going on, and the only way to figure it out was to ask the other side, which generally works best when they're alive. Despite this, they were all tensing up for an all-out assault via overwhelming numbers when Tyler interrupted the scuffle once again.

"So, all rude attempts to murder me aside, I think everyone here would benefit from a bit of a, how you say, parley?" The marine thought it over for a moment, then huffed in annoyance and stood.

"Stand down everyone; let's hear these assholes out. What the hell do you want?"

"Well… uh… actually, this complicates things," the scientist mused. "We wanted the Queen, but if she's in allegiance with you guys, she's not going to be a whole lot of use. I suppose we could settle for some Royal Jelly then." The marine closed his eyes for a moment, holding up a finger to indicate he should wait.

"She wants to talk to you." His eyes fluttered back open again, but his demeanour had changed. He was body-swapped.

"Greetings, little ones," the Queen spoke softly through the marine, taking careful stock of the room. "It is a relief to see no blood has yet been shed." She glanced down at her temporary body's arm. "Or, at least, not fatally. We should let this man get to a doctor." An opposing Xenomorph nodded and stepped forward, body subtly shifting to a straighter posture and that same keen, swooping gaze. The marine nodded gratefully and trotted away, down the corridor, causing a few of the rebels to tense up instinctively. "I assume you have all gained the ability of telepathy?" the Queen inquired in her natural voice, through the eager Xenomorph drone who had stepped forward.

"Yeah, that's right," Tyler confirmed, his mind racing with the implications of the Queen body swapping with so many different people so naturally. The others finally found the wherewithal to join him standing before the honourable royalty in such a humble form.

"Excellent. Now you may ask me as you wish." Jake glanced to Tyler, but he wore the same look of confusion. Sparing him the indignity, he proclaimed:

"What?"

"You said you had come here for me. I do hope your intention was not to kidnap me, but rather to converse."

"Uh, well, actually," Jake chuckled awkwardly, "the intention was to, er, rescue you… from the Weyland-Yutani corporation. But you seem quite comfy here with them. So perhaps if we could just take some Royal Jelly and leave…?"

"Hmm… I think I am beginning to understand what is happening here. I believe it would be best if you all came to see my Companion and I in person. These warriors will lead the way." The rebels complied, seeing as they were already vulnerable, mostly unarmed and outnumbered – what did they have to lose?

"So, theory," Tyler murmured in hushed tones to Jake as they walked side-by-side, following the lead of the marines and Xenomorphs. Put together, there was quite the small army. Jake almost felt a little touched that they'd warranted that kind of an opposing force to take them down. "That CEO guy we saw in the video? He hatches the Queen, somehow forms a Bond with the Queen, then rebels against the Corporation. The Wey-Yu sends a couple of teams to investigate after he takes over and the colony goes dark, so he wipes the database of the colony's records, hence why we couldn't find anything."

Jake nodded, not really caring to offer an opinion on the matter seeing as they were about to find out anyway. Once they began getting close to the colony's core, he noticed some of the vent openings showing signs of resin and, sure enough, a little more walking had them at a set of heavy doors, permanently held open by hardened Xeno goo. The sergeant paused as he gazed at the imposing tunnel of darkness, flowing patterns like spines lining the walls, curling intricately, hiding monsters from sight so unwary souls would wander within with a false sense of security and once they were too far in they would find themselves with claws and teeth and wicked bladed tails tearing them apart, slicing them, crushing their bones, squeezing the fight from their lungs as the crushing oppressing darkness sunk into their core they would be impregnated, infected with the very things which sought to end the lives of them and everyone they loved, their last moments screaming terror as their chests exploded –

A strong hand gripped his, wrapping around his sweaty palms completely like a warm blanket, soothing his spinning head. He leaned against his alien companion for a moment, humiliated when he noticed the entire group had stopped to shoot him concerned looks. Advena simply held him and gave the others the go-ahead, feeling awful that she had once accused him of hating resin for his own selfish reasons. Two of the colony's marines broke off and made themselves cosy nearby, likely keeping guard, along with two Xenos who might have been their companions, or simply backup. The rest carried on within.

"Is… he okay?" McDain asked worriedly to Tyler. He would be in the know, as one of Jake's close friends.

"My guess is he may have some form of PTSD from the bug hunt he met Advena on. A lot of people died in pretty horrific ways, I imagine," was the scientist's answer. McDain nodded and fell back in line with Burtz, not really comfortable staying close to the gay man longer than he needed.

"I can assure you this Hive was built on much better morals; both humans and Xenomorphs worked together to make this place a warm and welcoming home for both our species," a nearby Xeno chimed in helpfully. "And if you really do have peaceful intentions, your people are more than welcome to stay. It may seem quite dull, and lifeless, and claustrophobic, and artificial… but it's really not that bad! Especially seeing as we have freedom and family here! Being trapped in a metal box with recycled air seems a small price to pay for all that…"

"Have you guys not tried to, you know, move?" Tyler inquired curiously. It seemed despite their natural tendencies for spaces such as the colony, the aliens didn't much like the place.

"With what? We don't have any ships big enough to hold our Queen, let alone our entire population," the Xeno replied miserably. He did his best to perk up, however, after remembering he was in the presence of guests. "But it's not so bad, really. It's bigger than the cells we were given, and we're not experimented on, starved and studied on a daily basis."

Finally, they arrived in a massive chamber, next to the reactor, which had an arching ceiling and droves of eggs stacked neatly in designated areas or custom-built shelving units. Tyler couldn't help but smile at the cute display of symbiosis. Egg racks. That was a good idea; one to propose to the construction crew back on Altin.

"Holy shit," Tyler whispered, breathlessly. "They never actually let me see a Queen before. Now I can see why." He cast a sideways glance to the Xeno he'd been talking with. "Do we like, bow or something?"

"That will not be necessary," the Queen informed him mirthfully. Even with their superior hearing, there was no way a Xeno could have heard him in such hushed tones from the other side of the enormous room. She must be linked deeply with all of her subjects, enough so that she could use their ears to listen in on him, which made him shiver at the thought. What an invasion of privacy. "I suppose we should start with our story of how this came to be; you are undoubtedly curious, no?"

"I'm always willing to learn a new thing or two," Tyler said casually, defensively trying to hide his true passion towards the subject. He was bursting with curiosity, to be honest. Not just at how this all came to be – he could piece the most important parts together himself – but more about how a fully-functioning Hive worked, and just how strong, mentally and physically, a Queen really was. Burtz and McDain were silent, simply staring around in awe. It wasn't too far of a stretch to assume they hadn't seen an infestation before, nor a Queen. It must be more than a little overwhelming.

A small group of Xenomorph Runners scurried in carrying various pieces of furniture, before departing just as promptly as they'd arrived, having set up a small table with four seats in record time, perfectly synched. Probably because they were being conducted by the Queen's superior mind, if Tyler had to guess. He carefully took a seat and waited as a merry-looking man approached. As he took a seat across from the scientist, Tyler recognised him as Abraham Halm, the CEO of this colony.

"Feel free to take a seat," the man invited the other two. Loco curled into a little ball, which Burtz promptly became entangled with silently. McDain shrugged and took a seat on the floor also, smiling softly when Skater laid herself down behind him so he could lean on her. Abraham shrugged and leaned forward eagerly. "I'm assuming you're their leader?"

"In terms of intellect, yes. In terms of rank, not so much," Tyler explained. "I'm not technically part of the Resistance; I don't like being bossed around. It also means that no matter what I do, I technically can't betray them because I was never on their side anyway. Not that I'm planning on it, but hey, plan for every contingency and you'll never be caught off-guard." Abraham raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, people say I tend to go off on tangents a lot, my bad." Sal chose that moment to plop his rear down on the ground next to his seat and nudge his arm comfortingly, making the young man chuckle.

"So, you want to hear what this colony is all about, yes? Hear its history, how we came to this point, and where our allegiances lie?"

"Well, I've already figured all that out – not to burst your bubble or anything. Decent human being somehow makes it to CEO of a Xenomorph research branch, probably because the Wey-Yu needed to try different approaches, including one of compassion, which required said decent human being in order to accommodate. Decent human being wants to be impregnated with Queen because he doesn't feel right asking his men to do something he wouldn't do himself, Queen is all like 'hey, this guy's pretty cool. Sure, I'll Bond with him'. Somehow – probably due to the Queen's remarkably strong mental abilities – you establish a Bond without any verbal communication and work out how to communicate telepathically. Some stuff happens where you rebel against the Wey-Yu because you like your new gargantuan – no offense ma'am – girlfriend and don't want these guys to be experimented on anymore, take over the colony, wipe the servers so nobody knows where to find you or your alien friends and try to make a comfy life for yourself in this miserable block of metal, likely formulating plans on how to escape to a better planet where you can actually walk outside without asphyxiating to death. Did I miss anything?"

"Very impressive Mister…?" Abraham congratulated him, though he didn't sound very impressed. He sounded like how people sound when they're dealing with someone who's tolerable, but not exactly fun to be around, but they have to be polite for some reason or another. In other words, he was humouring Tyler and felt just a little exasperated at how egotistical he seemed. That to Tyler, was how inferior minds expressed their grief at realising the person before them was astoundingly smarter than they could ever hope to be. He took it as a compliment and his self-satisfied grin reflected that.

"Doelle, Tyler Doelle." He considered throwing in a quip about being the smartest person in the Resistance, but felt that might be overdoing it, and probably wouldn't help improve the CEO's disposition towards the Resistance. Instead, he simply extended his hand across the table.

"Abraham Halm." Tyler, of course, already knew this, but again, he didn't deem it necessary to push this man's buttons anymore. They shook briefly, Abraham's face stony and business-like while Tyler simply wore his sly smirk.

"Now, Mr. Halm, I'm going to go so far as to say the Weyland-Yutani Corporation had no real way of guessing we would be coming here looking for the Queen, as that would require a strong understanding of Xenomorph social structure and an intensive period of research on my background, followed by a lot of organising, predicting and strategising that would ultimately hinge millions of dollars of resources on blind luck when they know eventually we're going to rock up to their doorstep like a bunch of idiots anyway. Under that assumption, it is fair for me to draw the conclusion that this is not, in fact, a trap laid out to catch us rebel scum and that this all unfolded as I said so, and by extension, it is fair to say that we can trust you. Unfortunately, that leaves us with a one-way partnership as you'd have to be an idiot to trust me. You don't look like an idiot, Mr. Halm, so here's my snag: I have a plan that would greatly benefit both of our people, but in order for you to ever consider accepting my deal, I first have to present something to you which will gain me your trust. That's as far as I've gotten here, as trust is often difficult to obtain."

"You can start by talking like a normal human being, for starters. It would be a little less off-putting," Abraham grumbled.

"Meesa wanna do mutual benefit, but meesa needs ta knowsa how ta convince ya."

"God knows the Company would have sent someone who was a bit less of an asshole. The solution is a lot simpler than you seem to think Mister Smart Guy. All you gotta do, is join our Hive. From there, memory sharing and Hive Sense will quite literally make you unable to lie. If you've got nothing to hide, then it's easy peasy." Now it was Abraham's turn for a self-satisfied smirk as he leaned back in his chair. That was one downside to being the smartest person around; if someone does outsmart you, they feel like they're suddenly Einstein's third coming. "Well, you got an answer for me?"

"Okay, let's just get this out of the way. I trust you on a let's-work-together kind of level, not a come-on-in-and-read-all-my-private-thoughts-feelings-and-memories-like-some-kinda-fucking-book level. Besides, I'm not even the leader here. If anyone's gonna join your Hive, it's our sergeant; Jacob Harlor." Oh how it irritated Tyler when the shoe was on the other foot; Abraham had pushed a sensitive button, and the subtle tug of his lips into a victorious smirk told of just how soon he was going to forget it. Which was never, by the way. "I've had a pretty shitty life so far, and I'd rather not have to relive it. Memory sharing is like… mental vomiting. It all gushes out and you can't stop it, you think you're gonna pass out because you can't breathe, but then it ends and you gasp for breath before the next round starts." Tyler shuddered. "Yeah no, I'll leave that to the sergeant."

Strangely enough, that wiped the victorious expression off the man's face and replaced it with… concern?

"That's… not how it's supposed to feel."

"It could very likely be a symptom of having repressed memories," the Queen added thoughtfully.

"Look, are we here to psychoanalyse me, or are we going to make an alliance? I've got lots of sex to have with my boyfriend and lots of junk to tinker with, so if we could all move along, that'd be nice."

"Well, go fetch this sergeant of yours then; we're all eagerly awaiting."

"Uh, right. About that. He's not too keen on coming in here, so maybe if we could come out of the Hive…?"

"Out of the question, unfortunately," the Queen informed him with a slow shake of her massive head. "Joining a Hive requires close proximity to the Queen, and as I am now, it will be hard to be mobile." She gestured to where the large ovipositor attached to her body, and Tyler gave a nod of understanding. He knew from addendums of past experiments that once a Queen detached from their ovipositor, they had to grow a new one to lay eggs again. A huge waste of time and effort if this alliance thing fell through.

"Look, I'll do it," McDain sighed, finally stepping forward with his arms splayed indifferently. He was very clearly nervous however, despite how he wanted to appear. "I don't have a lot to hide, and you'll probably find something usable in there from Reveles station." The Queen nodded sagely and bent her head down to meet the comparatively tiny man. Just her head alone was as tall as he was, which was intimidating, to say the least. But bravely, he stepped forward, instinctively outstretching a hand to touch her domed head, before screwing his eyes shut in concentration. "Skater and I found physical contact made Bonding easier," he explained quietly.

From the outside, not much could be told from the breathless silence in the room. But to McDain and the Queen… flashes of memories, thoughts and feelings were exploding into their minds faster and faster as the Bond strengthened, Skater joining in to keep McDain calm as she knew this could only be accomplished with complete, conscious and willing effort. She guided her partner through the process, gently steering his mentality in the right directions to accept the Queen's mind into his own. And once there, something of a mental seed was planted, quickly blossoming into a link.

Gasping, McDain jerked his hand back, glancing around the room frantically as if he had only just become aware of the dozens of Xenomorphs observing the interaction. Whispers whirled around in his mind – their voices, their thoughts, their feelings – for but a few moments, then they were gone, fading back to their rightful owners. His connection to them, however, remained. He could feel it, right in the back of his mind, waiting to spring forth at his command not unlike the Bond he shared with Skater, though her presence was the loudest, and for that, he was thankful. The Queen came a close second, however, her strength and compassion thrumming in the air, just waiting to be accepted whenever he needed it.

"Interesting…" the Queen hummed. "You follow this Jeica… almost blindly, if you do not mind my saying." And McDain didn't. The presence in his head spoke only with concern for his safety – the Queen would not hear of any of her subjects being manipulated by anyone, no matter how smart or influential. It was touching, really, to see her so readily treat him as her own child – but then again, it felt like they had known each other for years somehow.

"I trust her," McDain answered carefully. "She's gotten me out of a hell of a lot of shitty situations, pulled her squads through hell and back and never left a man behind. And, well, you probably saw my memories of Jahora." The Queen had seen what happened on Jahora through him; when a Bond was established in such a way as they had just done, the memories exchanged were the ones most important to the people involved; their defining moments and treasured memories. The horrors of Jahora had been a defining moment for McDain.

Vicious, quadrupedal, bullet-proof-scaled creatures inhabited Jahora, eventually overrunning all but one of the colonies on its surface. The final colony held some high-priority Wey-Yu execs who, when the colony's military outposts were attacked, ordered an orbital strike on said outposts to stop the creatures from reaching them before they could evacuate. McDain had been stationed in one of those outposts. Leg torn off by one of the monsters, bleeding out on the ground, bombs powerful enough to level cities falling from space, then Jeica shows up. Orders her men to load up everyone they can into trucks, personally grabbing a few dozen of them herself, and ships them back to the colony to be stabilised. She had driven out of the safety of the colony, through creature-infested territory, into the line of fire of nearly-nuclear-level bombs to grab survivors. Crazy bastard was a god-damned hero as far as he was concerned. Even if this whole Resistance thing got him killed, he'd gotten to go home, see his family again and drink with his friends on shore leave far more times than he would have if he'd been turned to ash on Jahora.

The Queen could not deny that and in fact, if McDain's memories of the battle on Reveles station were anything to go by, it was Jeica who secured the escape of the captive Xenomorphs and rallied the marines to fight their fellow soldiers for a shot at freedom. The Queen would have no objections to joining forces with such a fierce leader, even if it did worry her just how strong McDain's loyalty to her was.

Abraham chuckled and turned back to Tyler.

"The missus has already made her mind up, and there's no denying you are who you say you are, so I guess the only thing left is to figure out how we go about this."

"Excellent!" Tyler exclaimed, relieved. He already had a few fundamental ideas about this part of their discussion. "So, my thoughts were this: we go back to our colony and bring a ship capable of housing all of you guys – yes, we do have one of those. Impressive, right? Then, we take you all back to our colony, where you and your Queen will establish themselves as co-leaders or something, and we kick some Weyland ass together, or die in a pitiful display of patriotism together. In the meantime, you'll be able to enjoy our colony's lush forests, open fields, sunny beaches and close-knit small-town community."

"What he means to say is," McDain butted in, "we're gonna shove those bureaucrats off their throne and establish Xenomorphs as a sapient species to live alongside us. He's a bit of a pessimist – and an asshole, if you couldn't tell."

"Pessimism and realism are two very closely related ideals."

"So, how does the brat's proposition sound?" McDain inquired, ignoring the scientist.

"Not all of us here want to fight," Abraham responded hesitantly. As much as he longed to leave the cramped colony for the fresh air, trees, grass and oceans, he wasn't going to force his people to fight a battle they might not believe in.

"Hey, it's a colony," Tyler reminded him. "Sure, we have plenty of soldiers standing by, but we've also got shops to run, houses to build, kids to teach, importing to do and all the rest. If you don't want to fight, there's plenty of backseat roles which need filling. Even for Xenos."

"Then it is settled," the Queen hummed happily. "We shall await your return eagerly and pack our things in the meantime."

"Excellent! I'll get on the comms immediately and tell Jeica about it; I'm sure she'll be thrilled to have some more competent and trustworthy additions to her militia. You lot coming?" Burtz lazily hauled herself to her feet, Loco doing the same after stretching his body out along the floor like an oversized cat. McDain and Skater, however, hesitated.

"Uh, actually… tell Jake I'm gonna stay put, will you? For, uh, to answer any questions they may have in the meantime, and stuff," McDain said lamely, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as an excuse to avert his eyes. Despite obviously seeing through the pathetic excuse for an excuse, Tyler didn't question it and just nodded.

"He's gonna be pissed that nobody's treating him like a proper commanding officer, but hey, pissing people off is practically my second job. See you in a couple of weeks then, corporal." McDain chuckled gratefully and gave a casual salute.

"Godspeed Mister Doelle."

~~~~~~~~~~(2 Days Later)~~~~~~~~~~

"Mister Doelle." Tyler groaned and shoved his blankets off moodily, uncaring that the android could see his naked body.

"Dude, ship clock, exists for a reason. What do you want?" he grunted out as he slipped out of Sal's arms and into some clothes, partly to make himself presentable, but mostly because the ship was freakin' cold compared to his comfy bed.

"We have an incoming ship on the radar," the android informed him in his tired-sounding monotone. Tyler's eyes went wide and he froze mid-belt-buckle.

"What? Why the fuck do you sound so calm about it? Wake the others!"

"Do you want to come to the cockpit first? There may not be any reason for concern."

"We're never that lucky. Wake the others, I'll take the controls." Larry sighed – something which Tyler found annoyingly contradictive as the android lacked any lungs to do so – and made his way to the cryo chamber to bring the crew out of hypersleep. Tyler, in the meantime, booked it to the captains chair, huffing in frustration when he found the comms panel flashing insistently. They were being hailed. Option 1: Ignore it. But then the ship would think they were all asleep with a low-level android manning the ship and would likely blow a hole in the hull to capture the cryo pods. A problem considering none of them would be in said pods, thus rendering them vulnerable to asphyxiation in space. Option 2: Answer the hail, get forced to surrender due to the fact they were out-sized and outgunned by the comparatively massive military cruiser.

Neither option was good, but one was clearly superior. "Ahem. This is, uh…" Shit. What was the name of the ship he was on? He'd never bothered to look. "This is the little ship here… Hi."

"For god's sake Tyler; it's us." Jeica's voice. Thank god. Tyler heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back in his chair. Then bolted back forward again.

"Hang on a minute; you were on comms from Altin just two days ago! How the hell did you get out here so fast?"

"New ships, courtesy of our Russian ally, they're fast as hell. Prepare to dock, and I'll tell you all about it while we head back to that colony you were telling me about."

A/N: Well, now I've gone and got myself invested in McDain's character. I suppose you should expect to see more from him later then.