Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox

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USM Anzio

"Alright people, let's go through the briefing one more time."

Lieutenant David Anderson looked around the shuttle bay of the Anzio, where his strike team had assembled.

"Calypso, a tramp freighter, was docked at the Sanctum research station when the xenomorphs they were studying escaped. Calypso took off, carrying a load of xenomorph eggs. They were scheduled to deliver them to a different lab, but they never arrived. Everybody assumed that either the eggs hatched, or a xenomorph got on board before they left Sanctum and the crew were killed. When Weyland-Yutani found a copy of their travel plan in some old database, they contacted the Military as per our ongoing agreement, and we managed to locate the ship. Unfortunately, we're not the only ones. Even more unfortunately, the aliens have decided to board Calypso. I don't think I have to explain to anyone what will happen if we don't interfere."

"What do we know about these aliens, sir?" Asked corporal Ishmael, one of the squad leaders. "Are they the same ones that Weyland-Yutani found in that ship on LV-426?"

"Possibly," Anderson replied. "But I doubt it. The design of their ship is quite different. That wreck on LV-426 looked like a giant horseshoe. This one is more like a flying stingray with a big glowing hole in it. Besides, that guy was huge. We got a look at the shuttle these people used and I don't think such a big creature could even fit inside."

"Besides," one of the other marines piped up. "That ship was old. Shouldn't those guys have evolved into pure energy beings by now?"

"You really should stop watching cheap SciFi flicks, O'Connor," Anderson said. "That stuff will rot your brain. Anyway, the plan of attack is simple. Calypso has two airlocks between the crew compartment and the cargo hold, one on either side of the ship. We go in with two shuttles at once, hit both airlocks at the same time. I'll lead one, sergeant Zim the other." He looked at the towering figure of his senior NCO, who had so far remained silent. "Once on board, we secure the bridge." He pointed at the spot on a diagram of the Calypso that was spread out on the deck. "We will also detain any aliens we find. Ms. Vicker, our corporate representative, will be joining us on my shuttle. She is preparing some simple images that we can show these aliens to try to explain what is going on."

There was a collective groan.

"Enough of that! I understand you don't want to babysit a civilian, but she will not board until we consider the area secure, so she will not get in your way and you don't have to play bodyguard. Once we have control of the ship, we'll try to figure out what has happened. Depending on what we find, we'll either kill all xenomorphs and secure the ship, or evacuate and destroy it."

"Sir," Ishmael spoke up again. "Do we have any idea how many hostiles we can expect?"

"Corporal, your guess is as good as mine. It could be only one, it could be a dozen."

"Surely that Vickers woman must know how many people were on board. Figure one chestburster for each. That should give us an idea"

"I know it's frustrating, Ishmael, but the truth is that nobody know how many people were on board that ship. Not me, and not Vickers."

"With all due respect, sir, do you seriously believe that. She's corporate! They never tell us everything."

"That may be so, corporal, but in this case, yes, I do believe her. When Calypso slipped from the dock, the Sanctum base was already in chaos." Anderson shrugged. "We don't know if all of the crew had made it back on board, or maybe somebody hitched a ride; We don't have a count on how many of those bloody eggs they had on board. We don't even know what actually happened after they took off. Perhaps a xenomorph had sneaked on board, or one of the crew had one in his chest, or one of the eggs hatched. Of course, now it's even more complicated. We don't know how many of these aliens were on that shuttle. If there are active xenomorphs on board they may get snagged."

"Sir," Sergeant Zim spoke up for the first time. "What about rules of engagement? It sounds as tough there will be both hostiles and neutrals in the combat zone."

Anderson took a deep breath before replying. This was the toughest issue. "I'll make this clear to all of you. The rules of engagement for this OP are very simple. Rule 1: If you see a xenomorph, you shoot first and ask later. Rule 2: Anything else, you ask first and shoot later, as long as it doesn't interfere with rule 1. I'm not kidding. We don't want to make first contact with whoever these people might be by shooting them, but we're not going to take any risks. This is still a combat operation and we will treat it as such. Any more questions?"

No-one spoke up.

"Good, board your shuttles. We'll be in range within the hour."

As the marines moved out, he noticed that the sergeant was hanging back, trying to get him alone.

"Anything on your mind, sergeant?"

Sergeant Zim, who probably had more combat missions under his belt than the rest of the unit combined looked decidedly uncomfortable.

"To be honest, lieutenant, I don't like it. I think the troops are too much on edge. They're scared. Not just of the xenomorphs. They're scared of whatever else they're about to meet. Someone is going to get hurt. Perhaps some of ours, but definitely these aliens. I don't think the brass are going to like it. Or the government."

"I'm well aware of that, sergeant. I'm very well aware of that, but the alternative is worse. For all we know, there could be a dozen xenomorphs waiting for us on the other side of those airlocks."

"I know that sir. It's just-"

"That you know what will happen to us, and especially me, if we screw this up. I know it too. The thing is, you have to be alive for any of that too happen, so let's make sue that we get through this alive."

"Yes, sir!"

Anderson looked around the shuttle bay and spotted Vickers, who had just entered, carrying a suitcase and something that looked suspiciously like a shotgun. He sighed. No matter how many problems you fixed, something else always came up.

USCSS Calypso

A sudden noise broke through the silence as the boarding party stood around the dead alien. Through the open doors they could see that red lights were flashing on the bridge. As they entered the bridge, they found that many of the formerly dead instruments had come to life.

"Captain!" Liara T'Soni was looking at one of the screens that had been activated. " I think I have something here."

She was staring at a row of symbols that seemed to be changing continuously.

"I think these are some kind of numbers. Look," she pointed at the symbol on the far right. "This one seems to be cycling through the same series of symbols over and over. There are..." she checked on her omnitool. "... ten different symbols. The sequence is always the same and when it reaches this one, the symbol to the left changes. I think, if we wait long enough that this pattern would repeat for the next symbol as well."

"Ten symbols," Mordin Solus was now looking at the same screen. "makes sense. Species has five digits on each hand, like asari. Logical to use base ten for numbers, like asari."

"Makes sense, " Shiana said. " Still, we are no closer to know what it means. I suppose it could be some kind of clock, but why would it appear now?"

At that moment her omnitool suddenly flashed, indicating that a call from the Light of Dawn was being forward from the boarding shuttle.

USM Anzio

In the combat operations centre of the Anzio a technician wearing a virtual reality helmet and gloves was working quickly while several of her fellow techs, and captain Ramirez, watched the results on a screen.

"I'm in, sir. Contact with Calypso's central computer. Trying to take control of the vessel." Her hands moved rapidly as she manipulated controls only she could see inside the VR environment.

"Good." Ramirez didn't take his eyes of the screen as he followed the tech's progress.

"Result negative, sir. There is a manual override. Someone on the Calypso has to allow me in. Trying to bypass. Result negative. There is a hardware cut-out. I cannot get any further.

"Bunch of pirates," Ramirez snorted. "No surprise they wouldn't want anyone to take control from the outside.

"Accessing logs." She was silent for a moment as a stream of data passed in front of her eyes. "Sir, the ship has been under minimal power for years, sitting in orbit. Engineering: shut down, bridge controls: shut down. Life support minimal, until two hours ago."

"Why did it activate?"

"Entrance of multiple individuals through cargo hatch, sir. The computer has noted some discrepancies from the norm, but it recognized them as 'human' and reactivated atmosphere and temperature controls."

"Do you have a head count?"

"No sir, the computer has no data and there are no cameras at the cargo hatch."

"Pitty. Alright, leave it for now. Once the boarding party has secured the bridge, they'll be able to give us full access. In the mean time, do you have any way to contact that alien vessel?"

The technician's hands moved rapidly as she disconnected from the Calypso's computer.

"I can see some emission, sir, but I cannot interface with it. There are patterns, but the VR interface doesn't know how to interpret them. Perhaps if I activated an electronic warfare package-"

"No, we don't want them to think we're hacking their systems. At least, not yet. Stand by for now. Let's activate the first-contact package and see what that gets us."

USCSS Calypso

"I understand, Levarn. Stick to first contact protocols and try to make contact. Don't risk the ship. If you have to abandon us, do it."

Shiana closed the channel and looked at the others.

"I assume you all heard the news. I cannot imagine that all this," she pointed at the newly activated instruments, "is a coincidence. That number pattern is probably a time to arrival, or a closing distance to that new ship. It seems, that we're about to have company. "

"Captain," Moryala said. "I don't think we want to be here when the aliens board. I mean, think about it. Presumably, this is their ship, so they're bound to come over here to investigate. If they find us here... We came aboard uninvited and now we're standing next to the corpse of one of their species. What will that look like to them?"

"But it's obviously been dead for a while. They cannot possibly think that -"

"Captain, we don't actually know how long it's been dead, or if they can tell that easily; or if they'll even check before they open fire. It's not as though we'll be able to explain it to them. Not right away. But if we're not here when they arrive, they'll have the chance to take a second look, maybe think things through. Plus, if we wait for them in the cargo hold, we'll have a nice big area, where everybody can see each other clearly, not these cramped little rooms."

"Right, I see your point."

Shiana activated her omnitool to open a link to the other half of her boarding party.

"Donal, V'Rini, come in please."

"Yes, captain?" It was V'Rini who answered

"You're aware of the new arrivals?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good, we're coming back to you. If these aliens dock, it'll probably be at the front. We'll wait for them in the cargo bay."

"Yes, captain, I understand. Ma'am. I think you should know. There seems to be something in here."

"What do you mean, something?

"Our omnitools keep giving readings of movement nearby, but we cannot actually see anything."

Her voice faded away for a moment, but Shiana could still hear it faintly as she spoke to her companion.

Then, suddenly,

"What is-, oh goddess, shoot it! SHOOT IT! SHOOT-"

The sound of gunfire cut off V'Rini's voice.

"V'Rini!"

There was only silence.

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I'm playing a little bit with names and franchises here. Sanctum was actually a Cerberus base in ME3. It seemed fitting to use it for something equally corrupt. Sergeant Zim is a character from Starship Troopers (both the book and the movie). I dropped his name partially because I liked the character, and partially because I see humanity as being at about the tech level that we saw in the first Starship Troopers movie. The VR environment hacking scene is based on Tek-Wars.

Thanks everyone for the reviews. It's great to see that people are taking an interest.

The xenomorph is on his way and will appear in person in the next chapter. He has spent a long time hybernating and now he's finally awake and there are all these interesting aliens around, so that has been keeping him occupied. Also, I'm still trying to find the right words to describe one of the greatest SciFi creations ever, as seen trough the eyes of an Asari.

As to the effect of ME style weaponry, I don't think that melting bullets would be a big problem. By then the bullet has already delivered its energy to the target. Still, the xenomorph is at least somewhat armoured, so you need a heavy calibre weapon to get through. I think it would be like fighting Cerberus Dragoons: an enemy that is relatively small, can move very quickly to close the distance, and once it's is on top of you, it deals a lot of damage. Heavy pistols would seem the best option, because you don't want them to get so close that they are in shotgun range. That will not be a problem for the marines though. For now I'll have them use chemically powered firearms as seen in the Alien franchise.