Author's Note: It is my misfortune ladies and gentlemen to have to say that after this update it will be a fortnight until I upload again, on the bright side I intend it to be my largest upload ever, with new fics I never got round to starting and chapters on nearly everything I haven't finished and rewrites of some of my shoddiest material. This is primarily due to the my rather extended holiday coming to an end, a last hurrah of sorts before I have to go back to the 'whenever I have the time and inclination' writing system.

Alec woke to Chrome's furious hissing. It had probably been a mistake to put the praetorian in the room next to his, other than being highly dangerous it was also proving rather hazardous to his ability to sleep.

Groggily sitting up he stared bleary eyed at the clock until it came into focus. 3:00am. How could it only be three in the morning? There had to be something wrong with the batteries, the nice, new ten year lifespan batteries. Chrome's hissing intensified with a slight pained edge to it. The anaesthetics must have worn off.

Taking a moment to douse his face with cold water to wake himself up properly, Alec grabbed his gun. And dropped it. Still trying to use his left hand for everything, the habit of a lifetime made obsolete by a single shot. Picking it up again, this time with his right hand, he then headed for the door, opening it slowly and peering through the crack, gun ready. Chrome was still bound firmly in place.

Satisfied he wasn't likely to be killed instantly, he walked in and examined his patient. The alcohol soaked compress had been completely eaten away by the acidic blood and he daren't apply another for fear of giving the praetorian alcohol poisoning. Fortunately the bleeding seemed to have stopped, well fortunately unless it was due to blood loss but Alec decided not to dwell on that.

Sensing his presence Chrome began to thrash wildly, desperate to escape her bindings and kill him. 'There's gratitude for you.' Alec thought wryly. It was mildly annoying if he were honest considering he'd saved the xenomorph's life, but unsurprising, he hadn't exactly expected trust and kindness from the creature.

As the xenomorph hissed away in it's near incomprehensible language Alec sighed, all attempts at communicating had thus far failed; he simply didn't know enough about their language.

He soaked another compress in water and dressed the wound, Chrome hissed as he applied it, the dressing was already audibly sizzling.

So far the chest wound showed signs of rapid healing, a common characteristic of xenomorph biology but the jaw was still broken – as well as dislocated – from the predator's brutal uppercut. The stab wound near the heart had proven difficult with Alec having to opt to simply keep it clean and he daren't risk antibiotics as they would likely prove fatal to Chrome.

Pulling up a chair he sat next to the praetorian, who tried to kill reach him again, grabbed a dataslate, and began to write out his journal.

Day 601

Shit really hit the fan today, was doing the usual weekly recon of the hive, making sure the new drones get used to my presence when I screwed up and panicked. Ended up turning the repulsors off. Ironically the xenos ignored me, upon fleeing the hive I was attacked by an alien – species unknown – using some form of plasma based weaponry, nor missing a couple of fingers; got off lucky.

Then taking complete leave of my senses I saved a praetorian – Chrome, see previous journal entries – who had been wounded in the fight, it's now in the room next to mine. I must have lost my fucking marbles this time!

Faceless was also killed in aforementioned fight as well as a repulsor destroyed: No parts to replace it either.

High chance this will be last journal entry.

Putting the dataslate aside Alec absentmindedly patted Chrome's smooth head before going back to bed.

Yeythwei swore angrily as the praetorian's tail pierced his stomach. Against all logic he used the tail to pull the alien closer, narrowly avoiding being disembowelled by it's claws.

Now too close for the praetorian to block he took a firm grip on his combispear and drove it up into the creature's brain, watching in mild fascination as the tip came out of the creature's skull then howling as blood poured onto his arm. Cursing his absentmindedness he pushed the creature away and quickly mopped up the blood with the leaves of some of the local vegetation before wincing as the plant stung his hand.

He was starting to think this planet would be the death of him. Still he had a lot to celebrate for the moment, ten drones he'd killed before the praetorian had even revealed itself – hoping to take advantage of his injuries and fatigue. Grinning beneath his mask he hacked off the praetorian's head, with so many trophies available it was going to be a long night.

The Queen waited patiently for the senior praetorian to return with news of the yautja's death. Already she'd ordered the drones to return to their normal duties about the hive.

Piusnex thrashed against her bonds, desperate to kill the human responsible for her captivity and torture. Giving up for the moment she could only wait as the human approached carrying one of the pain cloths in it's hand.

This time it only hurt slightly as the cloth was placed on the wound, she could already feel it beginning to dissolve.

As the human sat down next to her she thrashed again in the hopes of getting an arm free. Unable to do anything she could only listen as the human tapped away at something he was holding.

Finally the human put aside whatever it was doing and, patting her head as he did so, left. Leaving a slightly confused praetorian to her thoughts.

Author's Note: Against all my expectations this fic has already accelerated to my second most popular. Not that I'm complaining or anything just surprised and realising how neglected everything else I write is.