Disclaimer: I don't own Aliens.

Chapter 2

Insertion

Ted rubbed at his eyes as the wind picked up and blew sand in his face. Lila emerged from the transport hold and stepped down the ramp. She stopped in front of them and held out her hand, displaying three syringes.

"Maybe we should wait for the weather to improve," Jesse suggested, waving a finger to indicate the growing sandstorm.

"Come on, you baby," Ted said, reaching out and taking one of the syringes. None of them liked taking the needles.

"Just saying," Jesse shrugged as he and Ralph each took a syringe.

"We're taking the transport to the crack," Lila said. "Everyone else stays here to guard the front door."

"Groovy," Jesse muttered.

The four trudged into the transport. Ralph pounded a fist against the control button and the ramp retracted with a mechanical whirring. Jesse leaned against the APC. Lila ducked into the cockpit, a small space towards the front with two seats. Ted dropped into the copilot seat next to her.

Lila started the ship, the engine coming alive with a low hum. It lifted off the ground, the passengers barely feeling the momentum. The flight would take only a few minutes, but the crawl through the tunnels would last much longer.

"How are you feeling?" Lila asked.

"Fine," Ted replied.

"You guys just be careful," she warned. "The rest of us won't be there to back you up if you get into trouble this time."

"What makes you think we'll get in trouble?" Ted studied the gauges. He continued in his best action hero impression. "We're an elite team of shadowy special operatives. Trouble is afraid to come near us."

"Eyes front," Lila said. "We're at the site."

Ted stared out the window as the ship lowered towards the ground. It set down with a mild jerk. They stood up and walked back into the ship's hold.

"All right," Lila said. "Time to get moving."

They nodded and began stripping off their uniforms. Lila ducked into the APC, partly to preserve their modesty, but mostly because she hated watching what came next.

Ralph kicked off his pants and the three stood there in their underwear. Ted held up his syringe and jabbed it into his arm. The other two followed a second later. The empty syringes clattered against the floor and they waited a few seconds.

Ted gasped as chills swept through him. He gagged as his throat filled with spittle. The clear liquid spilled out of his mouth, soaking his chest. His pale skin darkened, turning black and hardening. His fingers extended, his nails growing into claws. Four short tubes, two on each side, exploded out of his back. He groaned in pain as his teeth grew too large for his mouth and their sharpening points tore into his misshapen mouth.

Finally, his head caught up to the rest of his body and began growing larger. His thin layer of hair fell out as the back of his head bulged. The growing dome didn't extend too far, becoming only a third of the size of a true alien's head.

Facial features began to vanish next; his eyebrows went the same way as his hair. His nose shrank back into his face, while his sockets tightened around his eyeballs. A hard carapace covered his eyes and blinded Ted. Then the alien's sight organ replaced his eyes and he could see again. His mouth grew wider, finally fitting his fangs. He drew his lips back, displaying his silver teeth. His tongue hardened and grew stiff, becoming a useless combination of alien inner jaws and human tongue.

Ted clenched and unclenched his fists, before cracking his neck. The scent of the other two reached him in more detail than he ever experienced through his human nose. He could smell faint traces of what they'd eaten for breakfast and even glean a sense of their emotional state at that moment. A sixth sense further heightened his perception of his comrade's thoughts.

A fourth weaker presence emanated from the APC. The Psych Chip in Lila's head allowed her to hear and communicate with the hybrids. It eliminated the need for radios between them.

"Let's grab our gear and get moving," Ralph ordered,

He stepped over to a small metal crate and tapped in a code on its number pad. The container beeped and Ralph slid the top off.

Ted slid off his underwear, Jesse followed a second later. None of them felt embarrassed when naked in their alien forms. Ralph pulled a pair of vests made up of straps and handed one to each of them.

They slid the vests on, clipping them tight to their chests. The straps fitted around the tubes on their backs and clung tight to their boney chests. Ted clicked on the miniature camera mounted on the vest's right shoulder.

"How's the reception?" Ted called over the link.

"It's fine," Lila's mental voice sounded from the APC.

Jesse passed a slim silver tube to Ted who clipped it unto his vest. A second grenade followed the first. Each took two grenades. Ralph removed a pistol next and placed it in the holster attached to the bottom right strap of his vest. He handed an identical gun to the other two. They stored several ammo clips in their vest pouches.

Ralph turned and led the way towards the back of the ship. Ted and Jesse followed without a word as he lowered the ramp. The trio of nearly identical hybrids charged out the opening at a light run.

As Ted's feet hit the red rock, he barely felt the heat of the desert. The sand whipped at his body, but that too went unnoticed. He no longer had eyes for the sand to irritate.

"The entrance should be about ten meters ahead," Lila informed.

Stopping at the rock's edge, Ralph examined the next sheet of rock several meters down. One by one, the hybrids leapt off the side. They turned to find a small crack opening in the wall before them.

"There's our way in, boys," Ralph said.

He dropped onto his stomach and crawled into the dark hole. Ted and Jesse glanced at each other. The later cocked his head to the side and the former crawled into the hole. Jesse followed at the back.

Ted felt his tubes brushing against the roof of the tunnel. He sensed Ralph in front of him through scent, hive link, and his electricity detecting sense. If he released a low hiss, he could glean the shape of the tunnel from the bouncing sound waves.

"How's our signal?" Ralph asked.

A few seconds passed before Lila's reply. "Loud and clear."

"Hold on, you guys smell that?" Ralph asked, halting.

Ted stopped and sucked air into his mouth, a familiar scent reached his mind.

"Salt water," Jesse said.

"Let's keep going," Ralph ordered. "When we get to the water, I'll go through and see if we can swim it before we run out of air. I'll call back to you if I reach the other side."

With the plan formed, they continued down the tunnel. Ralph's claws soon splashed water and the trio halted.

"Good luck," Ted said.

Ralph didn't reply audibly, but Ted thought he saw his head bob up and down in the darkness. The hybrid splashed into the water and then everything went silent. The two waited for Ralph to call back to them.

Tests back at the lunar base had revealed many of the hybrids' capabilities. They knew they could last without air for much longer than a human could, but Ted had forgotten exactly how long. He should've started counting the seconds off when Ralph went into the water.

He felt sure that Ralph had gone too far to turn back and if the tunnel stayed narrow, he would have to swim out backwards. Ted could've used their link to find out Ralph's situation, but feared distracting Ralph for even a moment.

"Okay, guys," Ralph's voice reach them and they breathed a sigh of relief. "It's a bit of a swim, but you should be able to make it. Ted first, then Jesse."

"Duh, I'm not squeezing past boulder butt," Jesse remarked.

Ted growled in mild annoyance before crawling forward. His hand hit the water and he inhaled deeply before plunging into the cold stream. The hybrid grabbed the rocky edges of the tunnel and pulled himself along, kicking with his feet. Echolocation guided him through the dark water. He couldn't smell anything through the water and the darkness continued to render him almost blind.

Just as his lungs began burning for air, the surface of the water bounced back to him on echolocation. He kicked upwards and breathed deeply as he burst out of the water.

"Wasn't that fun?" Ralph asked.

Ted sighed and pulled himself out of the water. "All right, Jess. I'm through."

This time he counted off the seconds in his mind. Jesse's head broke the surface and sent droplets flying at five minutes and nineteen seconds.

"Where'd Ralph go?" Jesse asked.

Ted glanced forwards and saw nothing, but darkness. He hissed and the sound waves bounced back with a picture of an empty tunnel. "Ralph?"

"Sorry, I went on ahead," his voice replied. "The Sequatos' cavern isn't far ahead."

"How's the situation look?" Ted asked as he crawled forward.

"Looks like they got a whole command center or something set up," Ralph replied. "A few guards, but I can't see much more from here."

Light shone through a small crack ahead and the tunnel widened. Ted climbed upright and spotted Ralph hanging from the wall next to the crack. The opening there would be wide enough for them to squeeze through.

Ted gripped the wall with his claws and climbed up. Thankfully, the rock provided plenty of handholds. He often wished he had the ability to scale any surface like the xenomorphs, but the transformation didn't allow it.

He peered out at the cavern beyond. Guards dressed in red and black robes stood around the room, each armed with a submachine gun. Large metal crates were stacked around the center of the room, electronic equipment sat on top of the crates, including the control panels for the sentry guns. The guns stood at the cavern's exit, rotating left and right in search of targets. A generator sat off to the right side of the crates, wires ran from it to the lights set up around the cave.

The hostages huddled against the wall to Ted's left. There looked to be about ten to fifteen of them, guarded by three Sequatos. Large tube-shaped containers sat in front of the hostages, either a green egg or a pale crab-like creature was visible through the clear glass of the tubes. The facehuggers pressed against the walls, eager to escape and fulfill their purpose.

"Lila? We've reached the Sequatos' holdout," Ralph said.

"Oh, man," Jesse groaned, peering over the crack.

Author's Note: Sorry, guys. I intended to put some action in this chapter, but it got too long. You'll just have to wait for next chapter for all hell to break loose.