Species Name: Slime Gestalts. Informally known as "Slime Girls".
Interactions: Interaction is rare. Most gestalts, owing to their dependence on bodies of water and natural environments such as their native forests and jungles, rarely venture beyond Terra or the most developed or naturally habitable colonies. For the same reasons, you are unlikely to see a gestalt as part of an ore towing crew or marine platoon. Many dislike the cold depths of space and a majority will only travel once or twice in their lives as colonists in specialized cryopods where they can sleep the whole way to their new home.
However, xenomorph attacks on gestalts were first reported at Remina, and later far more detailed descriptions of xenomorph-gestalt interaction were given during the Surge.
To most gestalts living closer to or on Terra, the xenomorphs are a distant threat but still one to worry about, and in the colonies close to those caught up in the Surge, nightmares about their kin being assaulted in various ways by xenomorphs were widely reported by multiple gestalt families, including those with no apparent relation to the deceased.
Biological Compatibility With Xenomorph:
Owing to their liquid based biology, gestalts are treated differently by xenomorphs compared to humans or other species composed of flesh and blood.
The facehugger stage has been noted to attack gestalts. While certain species can survive in situations that normal humans wouldn't be able to breathe in and freely live in water, slime girls are affected by the chemicals that a facehugger releases when inserting the embryo, which paralyzes and induces a period of unconsciousness if the facehugger is not removed quickly.
Due to their translucent bodies, the insertion of the embryo and growth of the xenomorph can be seen with the naked eye. The growing chestburster will attach itself to the slime's core and use it as a food source, quite like yolk in an egg. As soon as it is inserted, the chestburster adapts to its host's biology and becomes resistant to the typical dissolving abilities of the gestalt, incorporating them into itself. While having various abilities to control their biology, carving out or separating the chestburster containing half from the body will often not work due to it being attached to the core responsible for such control. It would be the equivalent of ripping out a human heart.
Birth is less dramatic than the usual human born bursting but still traumatic. The chestburster will eat the rest of the core, causing its parent to fall apart into a pile of inert liquid sludge. The chestburster will then rip its way out of the translucent mass like an amniotic sack before escaping to find a safe place to mature.
Xenomorphs born from gestalts tend to have the amorphous, wet nature of their progenitors and translucent body's similar to jellyfish, allowing them to slide into grates and spaces that most adults would have trouble fitting into, making them extremely dangerous ambush predators. While they tend to drip slime from their bodies, the arms and legs are solid and can freely transition into a liquid state and back for ambushing purposes. Coloration is typically based on that of its host. Fortunately, gestalt-born drones seem to share the same weakness towards fire as their hosts, more so then most Terran-born drones. It is unknown if gestalt-born's transitioning into Stage VI castes such as Praetorians and Queens would inherit or lose their unique traits owing to the "Pureblood" nature of those castes.
It is interaction with drones and their Stage V counterparts that is most significant. An adult xenomorph, when attacking a gestalt, will attempt to impale them with its inner jaw. When this happens, the inner jaw will release a black fluid derived from the xenomorph's genetic code into her body. A bite to the face or inner core in particular will vastly speed up the infection process, but any bite that allows the xenomorph to fully insert its inner jaw into the body will do. The barbed tail of an adult can also be used to inject the fluid.
The black fluid will then rapidly spread through the body, causing paralysis. The slime's liquid body will turn into a yellow-green hard sludge that will slowly drip out from her eyes, mouth, groin, posterior, and any newly opened orifice, typically those opened by the xenomorph. Resin will be placed over her body as a carapace to protect the new lifeform that the gestalt has been transformed into. This immobile sludge encased in resin acts as a source of food and medicine for xenomorphs. Young xenomorphs that feed on the sludge grow to adult size at a vastly increased rate and will transition from a Drone to a Stage V form at a faster rate than those who haven't. Wounded adult xenomorphs will heal rapidly by drinking up the sludge, which can allow them to regenerate limbs or even damaged organs such as their elongated brains. Feeding is done punching open holes in the carapace or drinking it from holes that already exist.
While the sludge can slowly regenerate overtime, overuse can "kill" the transformed lifeform. A group of wounded warriors might tear the carapace and body apart in a frenzy. A large group of recently born xenomorphs might drain the sludge dry, causing the carapace to fall apart.
This organism has been classified as a "Hive Node." Nodes successfully captured intact by AXCU tend to fall apart into a flat yellow blob when freed from the carapace holding and molding the shape of the former gestalt together. Despite a lack of physical activity, faint brain waves have been detected in captured nodes.
In light of these adaptations, it is likely that the xenomorph species or their presumed creators have had significant experiences with liquid-based lifeforms before their first encounters with Terran life.
Potential Uses Against Xenomorph:
Where their soft bodies made them resistant to blunt and stabbing trauma millennia ago, it now provides a great many weak spots for a xenomorph to inject its payload into. Their typical slow-moving speed makes most of them sitting ducks, and the xenomorphs ability to sense pheromones means that hiding or attempting to ambush won't work out. Like humans, slimes will literally glow in the dark from a xenomorph's perspective. In bodies of water the average slime can move more swiftly, but so can the xenomorphs, who have proven to be adept swimmers capable of lashing out with their teeth, claws, and tails far more effectively than most slimes with their pseudopods. At best water is a place to hide or use as a rapid retreat as long as the slime(s) can get a decent head start against a pursuing xenomorph.
Certain slimes with the ability to dissolve their prey alive would unfortunately find this ability backfiring against the xenomorphs. Acidic blood capable of melting through multiple floors of starship metal runs through their veins, so the creatures have a massive natural resistance to corrosive substances. If she did manage to melt through the highly durable carapace, she would be exposing herself to the acidic blood directly inside her body, to disastrous results, especially if the blood flows towards her core. And of course, an enveloped xenomorph will not be idle, as being enveloped in enough slime to contain it would provide the alien with a space to inject its mutagenic fluids at point blank range into her body or slash away towards her core with its claws.
Perhaps trying to absorb a facehugger or chestburster would be less hazardous owing to the smaller creature's lesser durability, but the acidic blood is still a concern, and absorbing the xenomorph would logically take in its mutagenic black essence. Would this turn her into a node or trigger an uncontrollable mutation into something else entirely? Further research will be required.
As liquid beings, slimes with the right training or instinctive knowledge could use the power of the elements, particularly water, to fend off xenomorphs, or outright kill them with sufficiently powerful techniques such as Water Cutting, wave generations, and high-pressure water manipulation. However, such powerful and well-trained slimes are rare and unlikely to brave the cold depths of space. Energy is not limitless, so these abilities are best used in a fighting retreat with other individuals. If even one Xenomorph gets past water attacks into close range, it's game over.
Powerful colony gestalts capable of wielding magic such as the legendary Queen Erubetie would logically fare far better, especially if they are only bitten or jabbed on a limb and able to sever it. Massive waves of water generated by such a powerful elemental would certainly send Xenomorphs tumbling a great distance away. Depending on the strength of the gestalt colony, the Xenomorphs might get right back up, have some damage on the carapace but still be able to fight, or they may be successfully crushed to death. Owing to her far greater power, one attempting to absorb a xenomorph might have far greater corrosive properties in her slime then most members of her species, but she would still have the same problems as other slimes, as she would be exposing herself to the most dangerous parts of xenomorph biology inside of her body. What the black essence could do in the body of an ancient gestalt made from dozens if not hundreds of absorbed bodies is a truly horrifying thought.
Once again, such a powerful being is unlikely to be on a ship or colony in the event of an infestation. Colony gestalts prefer to stay in lakes and underground caves and would most likely encounter xenomorphs in the event of a Terran Outbreak, but that would be a whole new set of issues.
Most slimes should be capable of using firearms, but owing to their nature's most will be covered in slime and thus "Gunked up" after prolonged use. And if a slime is using such weapons, they are best used in a retreat. As she cannot take advantage of her unique biology without endangering herself, a slime wielding most firearms might as well be just a wet human. If a slime or slimes are the only ones left in an outbreak that are capable of using firearms, then the situation is probably well and truly fucked.
Overall, the same traits that made slimes into specialized ambush predators and later companions of mankind are now critical weaknesses when it comes to combat with XX121. Enveloping and absorbing the aliens doesn't work or will backfire, their slow movements make them ideal prey, and the oldest and strongest among them prefer to stay on Terra. Most slimes in the Frontier are civilians with very few elementalists and even less ancient slimes in their ranks. If you are or know a slime living near a potential xenomorph hive, take my advice and just don't even. Notify the authorities and get the Hel out, don't go into the hive even if you're a kitted out ultimate badass.
Just don't go into a hive at all for fuck's sake.