18 Chapter 18 The Birth Of A Monarch

              _ _Researcher Rosanna J Smith_ _ 

"Get down!" One of the security personnel yelled as they dragged me down behind cover just as a hail of bullets skimmed above my head.

We hadn't expected to get attacked so suddenly after landing, we honestly had thought that we would have had more time before something like this actually happened. Unfortunately for us however that just wasn't the case in the end, we were completely out numbered at this point after all. Looking back on it now we had made the wrong decision, we had decided to stick close to our landing point in hopes that we'd be found and rescued, and yes, we were found eventually, just not by those that we actually wanted to discover us. 

(I can't allow myself to die, I must complete the mission that the queen has given me.) I muttered internally as I watched the carnage around us unfold.

We had the advantage of overall fire power, the dozens of bullet filled corpses were proof of that enough but... "More coming on the left." The prisoners had overwhelming quantity on their side.

"Eat this you damn bastards!" One of the marines yelled as he tossed a grenade into a group of them, a grenade that soon exploded sending slightly charred limbs and gore in every direction.

(Even if I wanted to run there is nowhere to go that wouldn't just end up with me getting captured or eaten alive by wildlife...) I sighed as I racked my brain for any ideas. (I can't fail here, I can't...I need some way out of this mess.)

Sadly I had nothing, I could only hope that the people with me would be able to handle it on their own, however our advantages wouldn't last forever, our ammunition wouldn't last forever. Thankfully it wouldn't get to that point because it was then that I heard it, a familiar sound that echoed in my ears and filled me with a mixture of hope and excitement. The sound was muffled and distant from what I could tell but still loud enough to hear over the fighting.

I wasn't the only one to notice it either. "Huh?"

"What is that?"

"It can't be...can it?"

At first it was hard to make out the sound clearly but as it grew closer the sound was unmistakable, it was the sound of roaring thrusters. More specifically however it was the sound of a dropship flying over the tree line and hovering over our little clearing in the forest.

"Need some help down there?"  A voice echoed out from the speakers of the dropship causing a deafening silence to sweep over the area.

The prisoners were momentarily stunned but that quickly turned to panic and desperation. "What the hell!"

"Run for it!" 

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap!"

"Oh no you don't." The voice spoke once more as the dropship's guns began to whirl into action while the scum turned to run for their lives. "Engage, mow them all down."

What happened next was plane and simple, it was a scene that could only be described in a single way after all. A complete and utter massacre. That's all it really was, a massacre that lasted for only a moment as the prisoners were shredded into minced meat without any means of retaliating.

(This could work in my favour...) I muttered internally as the dropship landed and several armed individuals rushed out of the back of it.

"Yes, this should work perfectly." I whispered to myself.

I was so focused on my thoughts however that I didn't notice the presence approaching me until someone tapped my shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, thank you." I yelped a little surprised as I looked up at the young dark skinned man motioning for me to take his hand.

"No problem at all." He hummed as he helped me to my feet.

Before I could say anything more a familiar voice spoke up. "Alright marines, gather whatever you can from the bodies, we are moving out in five." The voice had come from someone that I knew, someone that I could use.

"Colonel." 

Hearing and seeing my approach the man in question turned to meet me face to face. "What is it?"

"My name is Rosanna, Rosanna Smith." I announced but quickly continued as that wasn't the important thing here. "I thank you for the timely rescue, however I believe that I have some crucial information for you."

With a simple nod he gestured for me to continue and so I did. "Before the station went down I copied several files from the main database, more particularly information on several abandoned and secret outposts that were left behind when the original colony fell."

"What are you getting at?" He asked, sounding far more interested now.

"Those outposts may have supplies, supplies that we will soon desperately need." I explained but that wasn't all of it, in fact what I said next was the thing that really got his attention. "But more importantly however some of them might still have active generators or at least ones that we can repair, with generators comes power and with power we may be able to reactivate some of the abandoned defenses and radio equipment that were left behind all that time ago."

"Show me."

                           _ _Doctor Kane_ _

Everything was...was so dark, the pain in the back of my head and...and the feeling of disorientation wasn't helping either. The air was stuffy and humid...it was so warm...so disgusting...and the smell was...god...it was absolutely awful...I could...could barely breathe. I tried to move...I tried to do anything but...but my limbs wouldn't budge...there was something holding me in place.

"What...where am I?" I managed to groan out but was only met by an eerie and all encompassing silence.

Slowly as my awareness returned and my vision began to adapt to the darkness around me things became more clear, more focused. I would soon be wishing that I had stayed ignorant of my surroundings and the horrors that were lurking just out of view.

I was strapped to a wall by some kind of black material that was creepily familiar to me, although I couldn't really figure out why at the moment. Anyway, from what I could tell I was inside of some kind of underground tunnel, possibly a railway system of sorts. The area was relatively open and filled with what I thought were boxes and other such things that were all stacked into crudely put together barricades which were seemingly covered in the exact same substance that was currently holding me in place. A cross from me there was what appeared to be some kind of docking or loading area but it was too dark to see what was inside.

As my eyes adapted further to the dark environment more and more of my surroundings became clear to me. I noticed that I wasn't the only one here, in fact there were actually quite a few that had been similarly strapped to walls and other such surfaces, some people I even recognized. All of them had been covered in the same black gunk as me, the same black gunk that still seemed so very familiar to me but I just couldn't put my finger on why that was.

"Hey...hey is anyone...is anyone else awake?" I asked but once again got no response.

I tried to struggle even more, all in an attempt to break free but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't escape. "Why won't it just break already? What even if this damn...stuff...anyway...." I trailed off as it finally hit me.

My eyes widened, a cold chill of dread ran down my spine, my face became deathly pale and my heart began to pump vigorously in my chest. Slowly my face drifted towards the loading area where I was now finally able to see what lay inside and, well...I honestly wish that I had never opened my eyes to begin with.

There, surrounded by the same black gunk that trapped and held me in place was a creature I knew all too well. A xenomorph, and not just any kind of xenomorph in fact, this one was a dark violet colour. I do remember this specimen, it was pretty hard to forget its...unique appearance and origins after all, but it was different from before, it was way bigger then it had once been. Right now it was nearly twice the size as it had once been with a much larger head crest as well, honestly however I would have been fascinated by this sudden change in it's evolution if I wasn't currently trapped in the same space as it.

Many questions ran through my mind at that moment. How did I get here? How did that thing end up down here as well? How the hell did it survive the station falling from orbit for that matter? Sadly all those questions vanished and would never end up getting an answer as it was then that it happened. A strange cracking noise filled the area, the sound echoed off of the walls like an ominous melody that signaled the end for me. At first I was confused as to what it was until I noticed the creature's head split open. 

All I could do was scream after that, scream my lungs out in horror as that thing began to pull itself free of its own skin. A monarch, a queen had just been born and I knew, I knew exactly what would come next. 

As this was all happening however, something far away also reacted, a mind driven by Instinct but with keen intelligence and an overwhelming urge to survive, to grow. It could sense a potential competitor, a threat to the species as a whole, it knew, it knew what this meant. The abomination, the twisted child, the rogue strain, it still lived on even now. It couldn't let this mistake go uncorrected, it couldn't let this fact stand any longer, it couldn't let the broken child continue to live.