Mass Effect is the property of Bioware, Alien is owned by 20th Century Fox
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!
USCSS Calypso
Most of the human soldiers had moved toward the forward bulkhead, where a pile of boxes obscured a door that Shiana had not even noticed on her first visit. What kind of idiot loads cargo that way. Most of the hold is empty, but what little cargo here is, is obscuring an exit. As Shiana watched from a distance one of the soldiers took a small, spherical object out of his backpack and tossed it through the open door. It seemed to halt in mid-air, than floated away. Apparently it was a reconnaisance drone of some kind, because the soldier seemed to be able to follow its progress on a small monitor that was clipped to his wrist like an omnitool. A second soldier, carrying a truly massive gun, suspended from a harness that wrapped around his body watched the half-open door intently, weapon at the ready.
-o-o-o-
"Only partial lighting, lieutenant. There is no obstruction, the lights just don't seem to work properly."
Lieutenant Anderson watched over PFC Rutgers' shoulder as he steered the drone through the next cargo module. This one, like the one they were currently in, was almost empty. It was also half-dark.
"Any sign of movement?"
"No, sir. Nothing. It's as quiet as a tomb."
"You HAD to use that particular metaphor, didn't you, Rutgers? Alright. Four man squad, advance and secure the next module. Corporal Ishmael, take point."
The marines passed through the door into the next area. A few minutes passed, then Ishmael's voice came over the squad circuit.
"All clear, sir. No sign of hostiles, but definitely sign of xenomorphs."
Anderson gestured for Vickers and the three aliens to follow him as he stepped into the next cargo module. There was barely enough light to see with the naked eye, but the night-vision equipment built into his helmet provided an adequate view of the surroundings. The aliens didn't seem to have similar equipment, because beams of visible light projected from their helmets, creating long shadows that contributed to the already gloomy atmosphere.
"Show me, corporal."
"Right here, sir."
Ishmael was standing at the other end of the hold where a door lead to the next section. The area around the door was covered with a strange, resin-like substance that was effectively preventing the door from closing.
"They've built a hive."
"Yes, sir. And it looks like it's in the next module."
"Rutgers?"
"Ready, sir"
"Send it through."
The little drone passed through the door into near darkness.
-o-o-o-
Whatever the substance was that the soldiers had found near the open door, it clearly had some significance for them, for Shiana could see the increased tension in their stance even through body armour and helmets. The looked at the human female standing next to her and noticed that she, too, was now aiming her weapon at the door.
USM Anzio
"Captain, we're receiving a message from sergeant Zim, sir. He says he's finished collecting data and is ready to return as ordered."
"Any news from lieutenant Anderson?"
"No, sir. The last thing the sergeant heard was that that they had entered the cargo hold and where about to making their way forward."
Captain Ramirez considered his options. Part of him wanted to send Zim after Anderson but he restrained himself. Anderson had not asked for reinforcements and sending extra marines in blindly could easily lead to frendly-fire accidents. Throw in a bunch of aliens that they still couldn't communicate with above the most basic level and you had the perfect mix for total disaster. Instead he decided to compromise.
"Tell Zim to undock, but not return yet. Have him keep station on the Calypso in case lieutenant Anderson needs support."
He turned back to his view screens were a steady stream of data, received from the alien ship, was being diplayed and analyzed. There was something surreal about the whole situation. Here he was, successfully making peaceful first contact with an alien civilization, while almost within shouting distance his marine contingent might well be fighting for their lives.
"How are things with our new friends? Have they explained the true meaning of the universe yet?"
USCSS Calypso
Apparently the drone had not encountered any of the creatures, for a team of four soldiers advanced once again into the next section of the cargo area. Suddenly, there was some commotion as the soldiers around her seemed to receive some sort of message through their communicators. Their was a brief discussion, then the leader gestured toward Shiala and pointed at the Tempest sub-machine gun that she was still carrying. he made a grasping motion with his hand. Now what? All this time they accepted that we were armed, but now he wants to confiscate our weapons? That's not going to happen. Not with those things around. She took a step back. The soldier looked at the human female and said something. She answered, an expression that could well be annoyance appearing briefly on her face, than she handed her weapon to the soldier and took a step towards Shiana.
Shiana took another step back. Behind her she could almost feel her companions tensing up as the situation seemed to take avery ugly turn. The human took another step forward, her eyes fixed on Shiana's face, hands held out in plain sight. This time Shiana stood her ground. Backing up further didn't really seem like it would solve anything anyway.
"T'Soni, prepare to use your biotics. On my signal, put a singularity on the leader. I'll hit the female. We'll only have on shot at this. The moment they're disabled, we run for the door and lock it behind us. There are still four of them near the airlock, but when we come through that door those cargo boxes will cover us for a few moments."
The female gestured. She pointed at Shiana, then at the submachine gun, then at the open door. Wait, what... She pointed at Shiana again, then held her hands, as though holding a weapon. Does the mean...? Before she could finish the thought the human stepped forward, closing the distance, and grabbed Shiana's wrist.
"Captain..?"
"Wait! I think I understand."
Without breaking eye contact the human pushed Shiana's hand down and placed it on top of her sidearm. Then she released her and stepped back. Very slowly Shiana pulled the Tempest from its magnetic clamp. No-one tried to stop her. Shiana slowly released the breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.
"Solus, T'Soni. Draw your weapons. Whatever is in that next area, they seem to want us armed and ready."
-o-o-o-
"That was stupid Vickers." Anderson remarked as he handed her shotgun back. "You're lucky they hesitated, otherwise..."
"I know, but we're running out of time here and I had to get the message across. We cannot let them walk in there with their guns holstered."
"Just let me know in future. It might save me from heart attack."
Vickers laughed. "You know, Anderson, I might actually start to think that you care."
"Let's just say that it wouldn't look good on my record if you got killed over a simple misunderstanding. And speaking of getting killed. I think it's time we showed them what we're dealing with, here. Let's move people."
-o-o-o-
Despite the initial misunderstanding, it seemed to Shiana that she had made the right decision. A conclusion that was strengthened further once she stepped through the door into a nightmarish environment. This place was even darker than the one before, making it nearly impossible to see anything outside the direct beam of her helmet lights. Unlike the previous sections of the cargo hold, this part was actually filled with crates and boxes, many off them coated with the resin like substance they had found near the door, which gave the entire area an almost organic appearance, as though they were walking inside the body of a giant organism.
Slowly, with the soldiers around her carefully checking each corner, they made their way through the maze to where the little drone was now floating in place. In front of the drone, three familiar-looking figures were hanging from the wall.
"Oh, goddess!" Liara T'Soni, who was closer to the wall was the first to realize what they were seeing and stumbled back in horror as she recognized them. Shiana forced herself to look closer, even as every instinct in her body told her to run away and find a place to hide from what she was seeing. All three of her missing crew members were encased in the resin that covered the walls, holding them fixed in place. Their helmets seemed to have been forced open somehow. Donal was clearly dead, with a gaping wound in his chest where it seemed that something had forced its way out through both his chest and his environmental suit.
"Universal parasites." Mordin Solus sounded subdued as he inspected the body of his fellow salarian. "Not prey-specific. Wound similar to the one found on human body. Suit and helmet no impediment. He looked at the two asari. Moryala's face was covered by one of the creatures that the humans had shown them, its legs clamped to her head and the tail wrapped round her neck. V'Rini, on the other hand seemed almost unharmed. As Shiana approached, she opened her eyes.
"V'Rini"
"Captain, wait!" V'Rini's voice sounded hoarse. "There is... There is-"
Her words turned to a scream and before Shiana's horrified gaze, something started moving inside her environmental suit. Her screams were cut off abruptly as her chest seemed to burst open in a geyser of blood. From the open wound, a small head emerged, sporting a large number of razor-sharp teeth.
One of the soldiers dragged Shiana back and another reached out to grab the creature by its throat before it could fully emerge. Even as he touched it, a blueish glow surrounded the creature and the soldier's hand seemed to be slapped aside as though by an invisible force. That was enough time for the creature to fully emerge from V'Rini's chest, jump to the floor, and scuttle away.
"What in Athame's name-"
Shiana didn't get to finish her sentence as a large, dark shape suddenly dropped right in the middle of the small group and chaos erupted all around.
!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!
A slight misunderstanding based on misinterpretation of a hand gesture. Here it was solved peacefully because by now there is at least a little trust on both sides and Shiana tends to favour non-violent solutions. Another officer might have drawn a gun to warn Vickers off when she approached (not entirely without justification) and the next thing you know you have an armed stand-off and/or a shoot-out.
I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the incubation time, but I wanted to show at least a hint of the ME_alien/xenomorph and the movies weren't very consistent on that subject either. To paraphrase J. Michael Straczynski: Xenomorphs incubate with the speed of the plot.
Hazzamo: Eventually, the Predators will make an appearance. In terms of technology they fit in rather well (the Predators seem to have the same kind of personal cloak as an ME infiltrator) and the ability to visually cloak a whole ship might make a nice addition to the Normandy once they get to know each other). The question is whether the ME races are aware of them. Predators are a secretive bunch, but they do get around a lot, so it's unlikely that none of the ME races ever ran into them. Perhaps I'll keep them as a sort of interstellar bogey men: Some species have legends about invisible aliens hunting them, but no-one alive has actually seen them. That might also be an additional reason for not casually opening mass relays.