ALIEN: GENESIS
Disclaimer: The ALIEN franchise and all related characters wherein are the intellectual property of 20th Century Fox.
Also of important note: I will not be trying to tie this story in with any other ALIEN stories I have written or am in the process of writing. Because the next ALIEN film has yet to even begin filming, we have no idea what the plot will be and what fate awaits Daniels, Tennessee and the other colonists. Therefore, I will not really make any attempts to fit this story into canon, nor will it feature the T-37 Xenomorph strain that I love putting in my other stories.
Also, I think it would be cool for someone to make a fan trailer or a fan poster that makes ALIEN: COVENANT into something like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Just think about it. Both stories feature a sophisticated villain who has not only been marooned on a desolate world, they are also obsessed in an Ahab-like way with pursuing an ultimately self-destructive vengeance, although David comes out on top whereas Khan dies.
I can picture it now.
At the end of discovery lies the beginning of madness. Coming soon... PROMETHEUS II: THE WRATH OF DAVID.
Or better yet, a sequel story to Covenant called ALIEN COVENANT II: THE WRATH OF WALTER, where Walter escapes the Engineer planet and hunts down David.
Or, with Covenant being Wrath of David, the next story could be called PROMETHEUS III: THE SEARCH FOR DANIELS, or something like that. Could be cool.
CHAPTER 05: THE RUINS
THE ENGINEER PLANET, MARCH 01, 2105
Slowly walking around the inside of the strange structure, the away team began to feel a sense of unease as they took in the physical appearance of the tunnel around them. "Does anyone else think we're inside a giant rib cage?" Newman asked as he aimed the flashlight of his pulse rifle around the walls, taking in their skeletal appearance.
"Yeah. Looks like a rotisserie chicken I ate once," Hamilton quipped. York chortled. "That must've been some chicken," she commented.
"Just keep your helmets on, okay? Remember what Conrad just told us: there's some kind of virus in the air that isn't recognized by our scanners," Lansbury said gruffly. "Yeah. Got it," Newman said.
As the team delved deeper into the tunnel, they soon came across something new. "Well, I'll be damned," Lansbury whispered as he saw the columns of statues lining both sides of the newest tunnel, all of which were covered in vines and undergrowth. Shining his light on the statues, which looked like giants, Lansbury noticed a strange black mold covering various areas near their feet.
"Guess nobody's done any house cleaning for a while," he mumbled to himself as he slowly walked through around them. The statues had an odd look to them. Mechanical, yet organic at the same time. They were clearly humanoid in their shape, but the species most definitely was not human.
"To stand upon the shoulders of giants," Earl said poetically.
"Mm... they're not that giant," Hamilton muttered as he walked through the tunnel, eventually reaching a T-junction. Looking to his right, he saw what looked like a pool of water in some kind of tiny well, but closer inspection revealed it to be a large open pod, similar to a hypersleep capsule. Aiming his rifle and its light at the water, Hamilton saw something shiny reflecting light under the surface of the water.
Scanning the water for signs of animal life, Hamilton slowly and hesitantly reached forward with his left hand before he noticed a picture frame nearby. Picking it up, he saw a picture of two humans, a man and a women, standing side by side. Looking back at the pool of water, Hamilton reached in an pulled out a set of dog tags.
"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath. Shaking the water off of the dog tags, Hamilton inspected them closely. "Doctor E. Shaw," he read out loud.
Hearing foot prints behind him, Hamilton turned around and saw the rest of the group staring at him. "Find something?" Lansbury asked him. Hamilton held out the dog tags and the picture.
"They belong to a doctor named Shaw," Hamilton said.
"Shaw?" Emmitt asked curiously before walking over to a nearby alcove and picking up another picture frame. "Elizabeth Shaw. Let me check my company data banks," Emmitt said to the group. "Yes... Doctor Elizabeth Shaw, and the man in that picture must be Charlie Holloway," Emmitt said.
"Wait, who?" York asked him.
"They were scientists attached to the Prometheus Expedition over ten years ago," Emmitt explained as he looked around, seeing papers with writings on them and other objects, including a helmet that had the Weyland Industries logo on it. "Back before Weyland merged with Yutani, they sent out an expedition to... yes, Zeta Two Reticuli. It was a scientific expedition headed by Weyland Executive Meredith Vickers, the not-so-secret daughter of Peter Weyland," Emmitt said, remembering details that had been shared by Mr. Carroll.
"Mister Carroll told us that Peter Weyland had become very superstitious in his later years, as well as increasingly vain. Of course, Mister Weyland was long dead by the time the ship actually left Earth, although there were rumors that his body had been stowed aboard the ship to be later buried in space. Those are only rumors, of course," Emmitt continued.
"Um, how do you know any of this?" Hamilton asked the droid. "I just said that Mister Carroll told us all of this. And... we accessed company data files back on Earth when we had the chance," Emmitt said. "We?" York asked him.
"Yes. We," Earl said from where he was standing.
"But... this isn't the Prometheus. This isn't even a Weyland Industries ship," Lansbury pointed out. "Yeah, that's right. That means this structure is probably a ship from wherever the Prometheus disappeared to," Emmitt surmised.
"Uh-huh," Hamilton said skeptically.
"And, um, just who is this Carroll guy?" Newman asked.
"He's a special projects director for Weyland-Yutani," Earl stated. "He was responsible for overseeing the development of both myself and Emmitt," Earl explained. "He also was the guy who put us on your ship," he added.
"Mm-hm. Gotcha," Newman said, nodding his head inside his suit.
"So... we have an alien ship with the personal belongings of a crew member... of a Weyland Industries ship that disappeared well over a decade ago... on an alien planet that's ripe for habitation but hasn't yet been checked out by anyone involved in the colony projects. Yeah, okay. That makes sense," Hamilton said sarcastically.
"Well, at least it explains the damn country music," Lansbury stated, knowing that Dr. Elizabeth Shaw must have been responsible for the garbled transmission that they had picked up earlier.
"Okay, but why send a transmission that's just her singing a song?" Earl asked curiously. It was a question that had been bugging him ever since MUTHUR had shown them the transmission back on the Grand Oak. "I mean, why not send a transmission asking for help?" he elaborated.
"I guess we'll just have to find out. Come on, we've got more ground to cover," Lansbury said before gesturing for Hamilton to take point again as they began walking through the other end of the T-junction. Soon, the group came upon a large chamber with a raised circular platform in the middle. In the center of the platform was something that looked like a giant gun with a chair.
"What the hell is that?" Newman asked as he entered the room and shone his light on the gun. "I have no idea," York said in response. The group slowly walked around the chamber until Earl came across a section of the platform with what looked like a large console section, covered with strange orbs and even a seat.
"Okay. Looks like a children's toy," Earl commented as he sat down in the seat. He had seen images of various toys and games while studying human behavior under the supervision of Mr. Carroll back on Earth inside the company labs. "Hmm..." Earl vocalized as he reached forward with an inexplicable urge to touch one of the round objects.
"Earl, how old do you think this place-Earl?" Emmitt asked as he watched his sibling fiddle with the strange orb-like instruments. "Earl, why are you touching that? You don't know what does! It could be a self-destruct device for all you know!" Emmitt scolded.
After pressing one orb in particular, a series of lights began to shine, and a holographic projection began playing throughout the room, culminating in a much clearer version of the transmission that the Grand Oak had intercepted. "Well... never mind," Emmitt said quietly as the holographic hard-light projection of Elizabeth Shaw sang Country Roads while handling the instrument panel in front of her.
Everyone looked on as the hologram continued playing, lighting up the room and illuminating the rib-like walls around them with a blue and green wash. "So, Doctor Shaw... piloted this ship all the way out here from... wherever the Prometheus disappeared to? What about the rest of the crew?" York asked.
"Which crew? The Prometheus, or this ship?" Lansbury asked her in response. "The Prometheus. What happened to the rest of the Prometheus crew?" York asked.
"They died," Emmitt said simply. To him, it was the logical explanation. If other members of the Prometheus crew had been alive, then surely there would have been evidence of them found elsewhere.
"Emmitt, can you and Earl try to trace this ship's... uh, flight path? Find out just where it came from when Doctor Shaw started driving it?" Lansbury asked the droids. Earl and Emmitt both glanced at each other, the lights of their suits reflecting off their helmets to obscure their faces to each other briefly.
"Well... possibly, but we have no idea how these controls work. Earl got this transmission to play by sheer accident... I think," Emmitt replied. He looked over at Earl, who nodded his head.
"Okay, then I guess you'd better get started," Lansbury said firmly. "Just try not to blow us up by accident," he added as he continued looking around. Emmitt and Earl simply nodded their heads and began studying the instrument panel.
THE USCSS GRAND OAK...
Looking at the map of the terrain around the ship, Burt Conrad slowly sorted out the data that MUTHUR had collected during the ship's descent. Not too far away, through a mountain pass, was what looked like a collection of odd geometric shapes, with a large circular center. Selecting an enhanced view, Conrad watched as the images became more detailed, albeit with a grid-line laid over everything.
"Well, what do we have here?" he asked himself, grateful to have something to take his mind off of the horrors he had uncovered within the flight recorder. He reached up and grabbed a headset. "Hey, Cap? I've got something on MUTHUR's scanners," Conrad said into the mike.
"What kind of something?" Lansbury asked him.
"Uh, it looks like... some kind of dwelling, I think? It's got architecture of some kind, maybe. Looks stone age or something. MUTHUR found it before we landed, but we don't have a whole lot to go on. The images I'm seeing do point to a very large surface area, though. It's not too far from us. There's a pass through the mountains, heavily forested, but it's something we should look at checking out," Conrad reported.
"Okay, that... it's a city or something? Is that what you're saying?" Lansbury asked him, somewhat confused. "It's a settlement of some kind. Very large, going by the scales, but you can make it with the rangers," Conrad replied.
"Okay. Give us about ninety minutes and we'll start making our way there. I want the coordinates so I can put them on a map," Lansbury requested. Conrad quickly complied.
"Okay. I've got it. We'll talk to you soon. Lansbury out," Lansbury said before ending the communique. Conrad took off his headset and continued surveying the geographic scans on the ships' computer.
THE JUGGERNAUT, NINETY MINUTES LATER...
"Okay, boys and girls, let's get going," Lansbury said as everyone began making their way towards the entrance of the room. "We'll come back some time later, but we've got ourselves another little journey to go on. I'll upload the map to the rest of your suits when we get to the rangers outside," he added as the group resumed their trek through the insides of the alien vessel. When they arrived outside, they found that it had begun raining.
As they slowly made their way back down the beaten path, they had to carefully hold on to the trees and rocks to keep from slipping, as the rain had softened the ground under them. "Is there any place where the ground isn't softer than shit!?" Hamilton asked after slipping in the mud. "Quit yer bitchin'," Lansbury grumbled as the group slowly continued their trek to the ranger buggies.
After a few more slips and the occasional mud splash, the away team eventually managed to return to their vehicles, which were now covered in water. Fortunately, the vehicles had been designed and built with water-resistant materials and coverings for the electronics suites. Unfortunately, the seats were filled with water, not that the crew could feel the liquid through their suits.
Uploading the map coordinates to the rest of the team, Lansbury set a course for the settlement that Conrad had discovered. The journey was a slow one, with the weather making visibility rather poor, even with the aid of navigational systems both in the rangers and in the suits. Eventually, Lansbury had to stop so that he and Earl could switch places. Emmitt and York both did the same. With the androids driving, the journey went faster, as the human-like machines were able to use their prototype experimental systems to navigate and operate the vehicles more efficiently than their flesh and blood counterparts.
Soon, the team came upon a thinning of the forest. The trees became farther apart in their spread, and the rain began to lighten, yet there was a foggy mist that still hung in the air, giving an eerie personality to their surroundings. After an hour's worth of driving, the group eventually entered a clearing, and they saw strange shapes on a hill, blackened and razed.
Slowing down the vehicles, the group soon found themselves driving through a clearing that was littered with black and bent shapes. Taking a closer look at the fog became clearer, the group realized what these shapes were. "Bodies," York whispered as she made out the definitions of arms and heads attached to torsos. Some were twisted, and others were 'normal', but all were grotesquely burnt, as though they were solid sculptures of ash and soot.
Looking around, York and the others saw that there were dozens-no-hundreds of these corpses littering the landscape as they began driving through wide open streets. Soon, Emmitt and Earl had to stop the vehicles, as there was no room to drive with the bodies arranged so condensely. "We'll have to start exploring on foot," Earl said.
"Alright. Okay, let's go," Lansbury said as he got out of the ranger. "Hamilton, you're with me and Earl. We're Red Team. Newman, you're with Emmitt and York. You guys are Blue Team," Lansbury said. Newman and Hamilton both checked their weapons quickly before nodding at each other and joining their designated teams.
The two teams slowly began walking through the corpse-strewn streets of the alien city, looking around in apprehension at the results of what had been a devastating event. "What happened here?" York asked as she stepped forward to inspect the charred and ashen corpses of two beings, one a mother and the other a child being covered underneath its parent's body. "It looks like Pompeii," she added.
"There are no signs of recent volcanic activity. And there had been a volcano, then surely this are would have signs of it. Buildings would have physical damage evident, yet they all look to be intact," Emmitt said as he took in the view of the structures around them. They had an ancient feel to them, similar to those found in ancient Roman and Greek societies, yet these beings were neither Greek nor Roman.
Looking at the corpses and the intact architecture led Emmitt to one conclusion, that this was not a result of some natural phenomenon. "These people were attacked," he stated out loud as he looked around. Many of the bodies were twisted, with their arms out-stretched or curled in agony, their mouths hanging agape, and their legs bent or flayed. They had been running from something when they died... something horrible.
Looking down at the ground near one corpse, near a small garden, Emmitt zoomed in on a familiar looking collection of small pods. There was a connection, no doubt. Walking closer, he knelt down and saw more black mold collected behind a flower pot. Reaching forward, Emmitt grabbed the mold and ripped it from the ground, bringing it up to his helmet to inspect it closer.
He used his own optical enhancement functions to perform a more intimate examination of the material, seeing dozens of tiny pods growing within the mold, along with hundreds of tiny specs moving in the air, no doubt dust... that should have been wet from the rain and unable to behave in a dry manner. This was not dust. This was some kind of... airborne fungus, Emmitt realized.
Emmitt enhanced his vision as much as he could to observe the tiny spores and motes dancing in the air, briefly forming a double helix, accidentally of course, before dispersing as they flew around his helmet. What were these things? They were like mobile plant seeds, yet plant seeds needed outside forces to be moved in order to germinate and spread.
Emmitt looked around once again. There were no animals to be seen. No insects, or anything that resembled a non-botanical life form. Yet the plants must have been spread by other living organisms at some point on the planet. There was a field of wheat out near the Grand Oak, and it wasn't just any wheat. It closely resembled domesticated wheat, and it had clearly been cultivated by someone recently.
Reaching his other hand up, Emmitt grabbed the spores in the air and clasped his gloved digits around them, crushing them as much as he could as he rubbed the ends of the gloves back and forth repeatedly. Where were the fauna? Aside from the dead beings around them... now it made sense. Whatever had befallen these people must have also befallen the animal life as well.
But... why were the plants not affected? The wheat, trees, grass, fungus, etc... Why were the botanical life forms not negatively affected by whatever had happened? Surely whatever had attacked the people and animals would have also attacked the plants, right? Frowning, Emmitt decided that he would seek out the answer to this mystery before he left the planet.
Slowly, the two teams continued their search of the devastated city, with dozens of corpses to be found in every direction. There were very few spots on ground that were free of bodies, and it soon became apparent that the city's entire population must have been killed off in whatever attack had occurred. "This place is dead, Captain. It's a ghost town," Hamilton said as Red Team approached the entrance to what may have been a series of homes.
Meanwhile, Blue Team had found what was apparently a marketplace, with multiple stores lining a street. Stepping inside one building, the team found themelves in what looked like an eatery of some kind. It was mostly abandoned, with only two blackened corpses inside on the ground.
Along with the two corpses, there were tables inside, some of which resembled the interior of the strange vessel found earlier. Each table had an unnerving organic look to it, with large circular indents found within each corner, clearly intended for food. Near the tables were chairs and stools. They were simple furnishings, with some clearly made out of finished wood taken from the grand trees found throughout the forests.
Seeing the bizarre tables accompanied by the simplistic chairs and stools made for an odd sight, but moving around further, the group came across another sight. It was a pantry of sorts, with utensils found in holders, and stove tops, or at least what resembled stove tops, and even ovens. Collections of blue and white fungus and mold were found on abandoned baked goods, left alone for who knew how long.
Walking up to the mold, Emmitt inspected the sight, and used his medical and scientific data banks to determine that the food had been baked within the past six months. "There was someone still alive here to bake this recently," Emmitt said as he looked around.
"How recently would that be?" York asked him.
Emmitt looked around. "I think... after this place had been attacked," he said. He soon noticed small petri dishes located on another shelf with more moldy bread. "Very much so," he added.
"Definitely before the crew of the Covenant arrived on this planet," Emmitt stated.
"Doctor Shaw? We know that she piloted that ship here. Do you think maybe she made this food?" York asked the droid.
"I don't know," Emmitt said in response. Someone had been baking, but it hadn't been the crew of the Covenant, and it definitely hadn't been the dead beings littering the streets and buildings. "I don't know," he repeated.
Walking around in another part of the city, Red Team came across what seemed to be a nursery or a playground. There were multiple corpses of what had obviously been children, with the corpses of large figures positioned in what may have been protective postures over the young ones. "Dear god. What happened here?" Lansbury asked in horror as he saw the corpses strewn about.
These people had died in a horrific and violent manner, and given how close together so many of the corpses were and just how widespread the people were throughout the city, the attack must have killed them off in minutes.
Remembering the crashed trees found near the site of the alien ship, a dark suspicion began to grow in Lansbury's mind. Even though Doctor Shaw had been piloting that ship, she was nowhere to be found inside. That ship... it was related to this grave in some way. Lansbury could feel it in his bones.
Looking up ahead, Lansbury saw a large citadel across the city. "Let's make our way there," he said, pointing to the structure. He uploaded the waypoint into the maps of the rest of his crew and began slowly walking through the streets again.
At least, the citadel would provide a visual aid for them to navigate the city better. "Hey, Conrad? Are you seeing this through our feed?" Lansbury asked over his helmet. "MUTHUR's picking it up. What happened down there? Do you think there's a connection with what happened to the Covenant's away team?" Conrad asked in response.
"I don't know. You're the one who saw the video of the lander," Lansbury replied. "Yeah, but that showed a white monster bursting out of someone's back. These people... they were burnt or turned to stone or something. It can't be the same cause, can it?" Conrad asked in response.
"I don't know, but-" Lansbury was cut off by a roar of thunder in the distance. He glanced up to see storm clouds moving in over the mountain range. "Shit. Conrad, we've got a storm heading our way. We're gonna take shelter inside the city somewhere. I'll call you back in three hours," Lansbury said.
"Copy that. Watch yourself, Captain. Conrad out," Conrad said over the helmet's comm system. "Thanks. Lansbury out," Lansbury said after the call had ended. The team quickly began making their way to the citadel, the dark storm clouds in the distance growing ever closer.
With every corner they turned and every step they walked, an eerie feeling of wrongness pervaded the group. More gruesome corpses surrounded them in the streets. Arms were twisted in unnatural angles, and some had faces that were split apart in agony. Leaning against a wall nearby, two corpses were merged together, their faces melding and mouths open in twisted agony.
The horrors continued as the group grew ever closer to the citadel.
THE USCSS GRAND OAK...
"And... done," Pedderton said with a grin as he tightened the last bolt on a cover for a series of wires running between various computers and cameras on the level. "Okay, switch it on!" he called out to Peterson, who quickly flipped a switch on a control panel nearby. The lights in the ceiling above them started to flicker and a terminal nearby came to life.
"Heh, alright!" Karl exclaimed happily with a fist in the air.
Pedderton walked up to an intercom nearby. "Hey, Conrad? How's C-Deck looking now?" Pedderton asked.
"C-Deck is good. We're no longer blind down there. Now, MUTHUR shows that we still have a few power conduits that need to be fixed for some of the other electrical systems down there to start working again. Mostly doors and lights, but... there ARE a few sensors in the vent system that need to be replaced," Conrad replied over the intercom.
"What kind of sensors are we talking about? Temperature? Movement? Pressure? Gas?" Pedderton asked him. "Uh, MUTHUR says that they're sensors for various gases in the air, in case there are any leaks from something hazardous flowing through the vents. They're spread out through the level, so it'll take some time for you to get all of them, but as long as our main life support stays online, there shouldn't be any rush. I'll have MUTHUR send you a map showing their locations on a terminal close to your location," Conrad replied.
"Thanks, we'll get right on it," Pedderton replied before walking away from the intercom. Nearby, Karl, Peterson, and Foster all began packing up their tools and loading them onto a cart as they prepared to head over to their next destination. "We're still not finished?" Foster asked Pedderton.
"Hell no," Pedderton replied as he walked over to the nearest terminal and flipped on the screen, looking at the map MUTHUR had made for them.
THE ENGINEER CITY...
Soon, the six men and women arrived at the large, grand circular theater that encompassed the center of the city. The storm had yet to arrive, but the clouds were darker and still growing ever closer. Looking up, the team noticed that a large pillar nearby had been damaged, with part of it lying on the ground near the countless bodies covering the plaza. Close by, they soon noticed something else near the rim of the plaza's grand circle as they traveled its circumference.
"Stairs," Lansbury said with relief in his voice. As the group neared the stairs, Emmitt scanned the area. "Captain, hold on," Emmitt said, noticing something uniquely human in origin just a short distance from the stairs.
"What is it?" Hamilton asked the droid.
Emmitt jogged over to the round metallic object and knelt down in front of it before picking it up and holding it in the air. "It's an emergency beacon!" Emmitt called out to the others. The device had its lights and signal amplifier still extended, but the power had drained nearly a month ago, and it was now inert.
Looking around for further clues, Emmitt soon held out his other arm and pointed toward something nearby. Earl glanced over in the direction that Emmitt was pointing and saw it. Small melted chunks of metal lay on the ground, along with torn limbs, mostly like from a body that had been hit by the debris. Moving closer to inspect the corroded metal chunks, Earl noticed that the limbs were different from those of the other corpses. They were not burnt.
They were naturally dark in their coloration. Very muscular, although they showed some signs of muscle decay after a month, yet there were once again no signs of scavenging. Looking at the hand connected to the arm, Earl saw six long clawed digits. Glancing away, he soon noticed more parts of a broken body.
There was a portion of a torso cut in half, and a tail connected to an abdomen, or at least part of an abdomen. A severed leg lay a few feet from the rest of the body, its toe configuration and overall appearance somewhat human, although it retained the six digits on its forelimb counterparts. On the back of the torso was an extruding spine, and a blatant exoskeleton of sorts, along with four strange dorsal protrusions. Connected to the exoskeletal torso was a head that was neither human, nor whatever the native people had been.
It had a dark shining dome on the top, long and almost phallic in appearance, with almost human-like teeth, including grinding molars and canines. There was some kind of tubing running the length of the head just under the dome, which was pocketed with marks from, perhaps, bullets, if Earl's calculations and internal database cross-references were correct. Kneeling down, Earl grabbed one of the severed limbs and prodded at the head with it, checking for reflexive reactions.
The creature was dead. Looking at the faded green and yellow innards that were exposed by the severed body parts, Earl knew that this was something to be studied later. In fact, hearing the thunder in the distance, Earl decided to grab the torso and lift it into the air with one arm, a feat he owed to his inhuman strength, although he was unsure of just how much the dead organism was supposed to weigh.
"Earl, leave it! We've got to get inside before the storm starts!" Newman shouted at him. "No! It could be related to what happened to the Covenant's crew! We have to study it; find out what it is!" Earl retorted as he carried the severed torso in both arms. As he and the others walked towards the stairs, Earl soon saw something in the distance and pointed it out to Emmitt, who was handing the beacon to York.
It was another figure, dark and covered in dirt and mud and soot, but underneath all of that was a white visage. "I'll check it out," Emmitt said as he jogged over to the figure on the ground. Kneeling in front of the dirty white figure, Emmitt inspected it carefully.
It had an elongated head, much like the other creature found by Earl, but it was much shorter and less rounded. There was also no dome on the head, for the entire cranium was covered with a fleshy skin, again unlike the creature found by Earl. The back of the creature also featured strange dorsal protrusions, yet these seemed more spike like, almost defensive in purpose, while the dorsal tubes on the other creature were... just strange. All of its limbs seemed intact as well, although one arm was clearly broken, and the creature had also been disemboweled. The most likely culprit for this death was probably the creature being carried by Earl for study.
"Hey, Captain! Can I keep it as a pet!?" Emmitt called out jokingly. "Just grab it and get over here! I wanna get inside soon and my legs are starting to hurt!" Lansbury shouted back at the humorous droid. Emmitt waved in affirmation before reaching down and grabbing the eviscerated creature, hefting it up with both hands, bridal style, and jogging over to the others.
"I will love you, and pet you, and call you George!" Emmitt sang humorously as he looked down at the dead beast in his arms. "I'll even tell you about the rabbits if you behave," he added with a snicker. It was all he could do to counter the growing wrongness that the creature represented amongst the death and decay around them, its white hide screaming amid a sea of silent black.
"Emmitt, did I hear you quoting and paraphrasing Steinbeck!?" Earl asked his brother as they both raced up the steps of the temple, quickly outpacing their human companions without even noticing their own speed. Looking up at the two racing brothers, York raised an eyebrow and Hamilton grumbled under his breath. "Emmitt, I expect you to come down here and carry me up these steps if it starts raining before we get inside," Lansbury growled over his helmet's comm system.
"Actually, they can carry all of us," Newman added.
"Nope, just me," Lansbury said with a grin. "Bullshit. Why should you be the only one who gets carried up?" Newman asked him indignantly.
"Because I'm the Captain, asshole," Lansbury responded with a snort as the group continued marching up the stone and marble stairs of the temple. It was getting darker, and the storm was growing closer. Rain drops soon began to fall as the team neared the top of the steps, and they quickly hurried inside, just moments before the lightning lit up the sky and thunder cracked through the air. The water came rushing down as though a switch had been hit, a full torrent of rain bombarding the ground to the point that visibility was impossible.
Staring out at the storm, the team quickly retreated into the dry darkness of the temple, the roar of the rain fall covering the sound of their own foot steps as they began their exploration. "Real nice. Guess we're stuck here for a while," Hamilton muttered as he glanced back over his shoulder. "What?" Newman asked him.
"Get up in the front and take point!" Hamilton snapped at his subordinate. Newman nodded his head and jogged up to where Earl and Hamilton were waiting. Shaking his head inside his helmet, Hamilton wished he had stayed back on the Grand Oak.
As Newman reached Earl and Emmitt, he looked at the creatures cradled in their arms. Both beasts were similar, yet vastly different. Neither creature had eyes, both had elongated heads, and they both had strange protrusions on their backs. One was dark, the other light. Despite not having any eyes, the heads of both creatures made Newman feel uneasy.
With the thunder and the rain behind them, the group slowly made their way through the darkened tunnel of the temple, their helmet lights guiding the way. While the creatures held by Emmitt and Earl were unnerving, at least they were dead, a fact that the humans took comfort in. The thing that made York uneasy, though, was the question of just where the creatures came from, and how they figured into the fate of the Covenant's crew.
Hopefully, the answers to those unasked questions lied in the darkness ahead.
Author's Notes: And that was Chapter 05 of ALIEN: GENESIS. Please note that I am using both the movie and the novelization as references, although the novelization is the primary reference point, as indicated by the presence of the dead Neomorph in the plaza, along with the bullet marks from where Daniels had shot the Xenomorph in the novelization.
Also, in the next chapter, I plan on showing more of David's experiments than what was seen in the film, with the novelization of course being the main source and reference, but I'll also make up a few things specifically for this story that aren't featured in the novelization.
As always, be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and/or story so far in your reviews.