My ship creaked and rattled as it made the jump out of Hyperspace. Laying in front of me was the forest world of Ios. From my Recaro pilot seat I could see clouds swirling over the dark green surface. It's aquatic moon peacefully orbited the planet and their blue star burned gracefully many millions of miles away, it was an image that would stay with me for the rest of my life. The sound of my A-Classes high compression engines and warp cores winding down could be heard faintly in the back of the ship.
“Target reached”, my ship's AI said, “disengaging warp core.”
“Magellan”, I said leaning forward and stuffing a few puffy Cheetos into my mouth, “track and lock onto Confederate Research Facility 36's GPS beacon, search Biosphere Labs, give me anything you can find on it.”
“Tracking” Magellan said, “GPS beacon found, imputing orbital components, establishing orbit, beginning descent.”
I set my bag of Cheetos on the control panel, leaned back in my seat and looked at the data that was popping up in front of me. It had been a few hours since I'd received a call from the Biosphere complex on the surface. From what I was gathering in the data, it was a Level 3 biological research lab. They dealt mostly with genetic mutation and cloning. They also had the best security force in the Bogon Galaxy. I had read when I was younger that they had an out brake of a gene splicing agent known only as “Breeder” and their security team had crushed everything infected in under three hours, losing only one of their own. It made me wonder why they were calling in a Bounty Hunter when they had their own private army ready to fly at a seconds notice. The message that they sent me wasn't much more than picking up the phone and talking to an answering machine, but with what I heard I assumed that it was bad, so I gathered my gear and came out.
“Why do ya think they called us out here Magellan?”, I asked putting my feet up on the console.
“I wouldn't know”, Magellan answered, “what did they say on the call?”
“Hello, Skyline. We here a Biosphere Research have an offer to extend to you”, I said mimicking the voice, “we have encountered a creature in our laboratories that requires extermination. Should you accept this contract, you will be paid 4.5 Billion Units upon the death of this creature.”
“Don't you find it weird that they mentioned you by name? Or that they didn't tell you anything but, a creature needs to die?”, Magellan asked.
“You over think everything”, I said, “typical AI. Why don't you just relax and have some? Loosen your circus a little?”
“My idea of fun would be having that robot body you promised you were gonna build me”, Magellan said.
I laughed a little, “I'll get to it! And no, I don't find it weird that they mentioned me by name. It's probably just like all our other hunts, some giant bug that ate someone or some shit. It's not like I have my face all over every poster in the Galaxy or something. Oh..wait a minute I do!”
“Typical cocky 24 year old”, Magellan snickered.
“Touche”, I answered, “how long before we make the surface?”
“Not long at all”, Magellan answered, “get your gear ready, I'll notify you once we hit the atmosphere.”
I nodded and got up from my warm, comfortable seat and left the cockpit. The hallways in my ship were always dark, but I liked it that way. The bright light always pierced right through my visor and fried my eyes. I started down the long hallway. The floors were made of grated metal panels that allowed me easy access to the wires, pipes and systems underneath them. The walls were no different. They were bare metal and wires with the struts showing, I would probably get an interior in this thing after this job, was getting annoyed as hell with the bare minimum ship set up. I walked down to a four way hall and took a right turn and walked down another small hallway before passing through a hatch which opened with a whooshing sound and walking down another short hallway. I opened the door to my room and walked inside.
It was better done than the rest of the ship. I had a thick carpet on the floor and a large bed on a wooden frame in the corner. A flat screen hung on the wall with a DVD player underneath it. The walls were covered in tan painted sheet rock as opposed to the bare, grey metal of the rest of the place. In the corner closest to my bed, I had a wooden table that held my Xbox 3 and a small mini fridge. I was a complete video game addict and played every chance I had, which annoyed the living hell out of Magellan, who thought I should do, quote un quote”something productive with my time.” In another corner of the room, I had a dresser that had my everyday clothes in them, though I normally walked around the ship without them, since I really didn't need them to begin with. Beside the dresser were two lockers that held various articles of military equipment from different species and worlds that I had acquired at gunshows and bazaars over the years for rock bottom prices.
I opened one of the lockers and pulled out a white short-sleeved undershirt with holes cut in the back and slipped it on, adjusting it until I felt comfortable. I then pulled out a pair of undershorts and slid them on. I put on a white, long sleeved Multicam shirt next and then slipped on a pair of pants patterned the same way. Over my shirt went a Multicam jacket with a long collar and then I pulled on socks and my boots. I pulled my vest, which held the magazines for my FHN FAL OSW and my Automag 5 handgun, on over my jacket and then strapped the holster on it securely to my leg. I grabbed my OSW, which sported a matte black finish, a 5X assault rifle scope and a suppressor and slung it over my shoulder. My Automag, a somewhat weighty, .50 Action hand cannon, or as I called it, “the absolute final word in one handed caliber matches”, was placed into it's holster. Next, my Samurai Sword. I had bought it at a bazaar on the gas giant Titan about two years ago and so far it had gotten out of more than a few bad spots. I placed it on my back and then grabbed my fingerless, mesh combat gloves, slipped them on, finally grabbing my pack.
As I was walking out, I stopped to look at myself in the mirror.
My vicious looking white fangs, razor tipped tail swishing anxiously behind me, down pipes sticking out of my back and through my clothes, my black, clawed hands, black Chitin exoskeleton, dome for my head and the deep, painful scars that covered every inch of my body and were hidden by my combat gear as well as the metal plate holding my skull together. It's a miracle that thing hasn't dissolved yet. I wondered if I would ever get full control of my body back after the way those humans abused me. Don't Skyline, it's in the past, time to let it go, live and let live. I grabbed a bottle of Coke from a mini fridge I had by my Xbox 3 and then walked back to the command room. I had maybe taken two steps when Magellan came over the inter coms.
“Skyline were starting the descent.”
I quickened my pace back to the command room. Once I was there, I locked the door behind me, set my pack and rifle in the corner and strapped myself into my seat.
“What's our rate?”, I asked.
“6,800 feet per minute”, Magellan said.
“That's a little to fast for my tastes”, I said flipping thrust control switches and pulling back on the steering wheel, “let's bring that down to 2500.”
With some effort to the manual controls, I was able to slow my ships rate of descent down to twenty four hundred feet a minute. There was shaking and rattling all through the atmosphere of the planet, but once we cleared it, my ships Areo parts and giant spoiler evened it out. On the surface of the planet were huge rolling trees, some of which had to be thousands of feet up. Some were even taller. I had just barely entered the atmosphere and I could see a tree that a ship flying even at this altitude could crash into, several of them actually. Huge birds, some bigger than I was, flew beside my ship and in the skies in front of me. This is one hell of a planet already, can't wait to land. Also from where I was, I could see the Biosphere facility.
It was a massive, blue, spider like building with red lights flashing on it. I had to wonder how big those bulbs must be for me to see them from this far away and in midday to boot. It had spider like appendages sprawling into the tree tops which connected to small pods which I guessed were studying plants and the like. There was a huge antenna that was flashing red, marking a landing pad.
“Magellan”, I said, “put it down on that landing pad.”
“Will do”, Magellan said.
I un buckled myself, grabbed my backpack and FAL and then made haste for the entrance on my ship. I heard the engines priming down as Magellan landed the ship with a thud. I hit the hatch release and stepped out into the blinding, jungle sunlight. The air on the outside was thick, heavy and moist, I assumed it had just finished raining because the landing pad was wet. The sky was a clear blue and it was hot out, I'd say at least 110 degrees. The planets blue star burned brightly in the distance, the light was a little harsh for me, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I flipped my rifle off safe and walked up to a small door that automatically slid open.
It was jet dark inside, too dark for even nocturnal creatures to operate normally. The smell of blood and death lofted around in the air, not a very good first sign. I slung my rifle over my shoulders and grabbed my Automag and flashlight. The inside was completely trashed. There were slashes in the walls. Wires and pipes had been pulled out of the ceiling and there was blood...just everywhere. Directly in front of me was a small hallway that led back into more inky dark, light only by emergency lighting, with how dim the lights where, I assumed the main generator was down. I knew labs like this operated on a closed power grid and computer network, so if I could find a terminal of some kind I could get a picture of what was going on.
I held my Automag at the ready as I started down the hallway, keeping myself on edge and listening for any kind of noise that wasn't my boots on the metal. The hallway was lined with doors that led into small labs. They were numbered in an alternating pattern, decreasing by two with even on the right and odd on the left. Some of them were ajar, some were open all the way and some were shut tightly. I checked all ten labs in the hallway for a terminal, maybe someone who was hiding in them, but only more blood, broken test tubes and beakers and more claw marks in the walls. They were three clawed marks, which was strange because I didn't know of any three clawed creatures, at least none that were native to this planet. What really interested me was that they were inches into plate steel. Hope Chitin can stop whatever claws this thing has. I stepped back into the hallway and continued with my search.
I came to the end of the hall. Due to glass in the ceiling, I could see what was around me without the aid of the light. It was a round circular atrium. There were two benches to the side of each of the four doorways. In between the benches were potted plants intended to spruce up the area and the a big “Biosphere Research” flag was hanging on the back wall. There were bloody guns and spent shell cartridges everywhere and a few of the guns still had glowing red barrels. Mobile barricades that were set up in the door ways had holes, some the size of my arm, slashed into them and the machine guns that were set up behind them had been twisted into a knot. I could only see one man, who had been ripped in half, with his lower half no where in sight.
I walked over to him. He didn't appear to be any older than I was. He had pale skin, black hair and blue eyes. There were furrows slashed into his gut through his vest and his organs were spilling out of the gashes and the hole where his legs would normally have met his torso. Upon further inspection of the corpse, I noticed bite marks on his neck that went to the bone. I was starting to think that this was going to be much more than just another bug hunt. I closed the man's fear filled eyes and stood up, peering down the hallway. Nothing but darkness. I shook my head and started down the hallway. A ways down, I began to hear this slithering sound. I stopped, turned off my flashlight, quieted my breathing and listened to what was around me. 100 feet down the hallway...and 34 feet from a right turn at a three way hall was the source of the sound, the creature by my guess.
I holstered my Automag in exchange for my FAL and then sprinted down the hall. At the intersection, I turned to see it standing, or more sitting, since it didn't have legs. It was a large, slug like creature with two tentacles on the ground, four coming out of it's head and several more coming out of it's body. I could see that it had someone in it's grip and hear a sort of “sucking” sound.
“Hey!”, I shouted at it.
The creature threw the man against the wall and turned to face me. It didn't actually have much of a face. Where I guessed it's eyes should be were two, disfigured, red holes. Long white fangs lined the inside of it's mouth and creepily, half of it's mouth had a fleshy growth that limited how far it could open it.
“Damn are you one ugly piece of shit!”, I said raising my rifle.
Before I could get one shot off, it closed the thirty feet and had me in it's snares. It was a lot stronger than me and held me tightly even though I was squirming. Four tentacles shot out of it's back and bit into my legs and neck. Big mistake. There was a loud sizzling sound. The creature hissed, squealed and let me go. As it retreated, I spun myself around and slashed across it;'s face with the razor on my tail. It recoiled even further as I landed two more strikes on it's chest area and one on the side of it's head. I snatched up my rifle and put out four rounds which struck my target in the chest, neck and on a tentacle on the side of it's head.
I snickered, “I didn't taste too good did I.”
It hissed at me and grabbed up a body next to it. I stood there and watched as it drank the human dry of blood and it's injuries healed up. Well, isn't that a nice surprise.
“Where do they find people to make shit like you?”, I asked shouldering my rifle and emptying all of my 31 rounds down range. The creature squealed and slithered off so fast that chasing it was pointless. Finding this thing again is gonna be impossible.
I pushed a lever on the bottom of my gun and let the empty magazine fall to the ground. The noise of the hollow metal box on the steel plate echoed through the hallway. I pulled a fresh magazine from my vest and clicked it into place, slapping the charging handle and letting the bolt fly forward with a thunk that bounced off the metal walls. I started down the hallway after it.
“Psst!”
I stopped. Did something just psst me?
“Hey!”, a voice called quietly, “it's playing you! Get in here before it comes back!”
I turned around and saw a woman in a lab coat standing in a doorway that I hadn't seen. I shot another look down the hallway and quickly retreated to the doorway.
“Who are you?”, she asked.
“Skyline”, I answered, “I got a distress call a few hours ago that came from this location.”
She stepped aside and I backed into the room. It was a small, empty room, except for a sink in the back and a few lockers beside it. There were four people in the room. Two were scientists, one was a security guard, one was a little boy who was looking at me in amazement.
“Dammit Sarah!”, of the scientists said, “you called a Xenomorph here to save us?”
“Nice to meet you too”, I said lowering my rifle.
“Why don't you shut your fucking mouth huh you piece of crap?”, the man asked as he glared at me.
I gave an exasperated sigh and shut up as the man continued to chew out his friend.
“Of all the stupid shit you've done this is the stupidest!”, the man said, “what makes you think this...thing...won't just kill us?”
“Have you seen his reputation Jacob?”, Sarah asked, “if anyone can kill this thing, it's him!”
“Like I give two shits about his reputation”, Jacob snapped, “he's a Xeno. As far as I care, there all bloodthirsty soulless killers.”
“Then I guess you don't want this “bloodthirsty soulless killer” to take you to his ship and save you?”, I asked.
The man growled at me, “try anything and I'll crack your skull open on the floor.”
“And then you'd get doused in acid smart ass”, the third scientist interjected, “what did you do with that million buck grant you got to research them?”
Jacob didn't answer his colleague.
“Where's your ship Skyline?”, the third scientist asked.
“Sitting on the landing pad just outside”, I said, “it's about a hundred yards away I'd guess.”
“Can we make it there safely?”, Sarah asked.
“As long as you all stay close to me”, I said, “it found out the hard way that it can't touch me, but I've seen what it did to your security, are you all armed?”
“Just a few 9mm handguns”, Sarah answered.
“Good enough”, I said, “follow me, stay close, do what I say when I say it and I guarantee you all make it out of here with your lives.”
I clicked the door open and poked my head out, I didn't see anything other than dark. My telekinetic organ didn't get anything either, so I stepped out, motioning for the scientists to follow me. The security guard, who was packing an M240, brought up our flank. Slowly, I walked them back the way I came. We were in the area where I had found the dead guard when I heard the creature coming.
“It's coming”, I said, “everyone come on! I can see the door from here, let's make a run for it!”
The scientists started running while the security guard and I opened fire on the creature. Our bullets were impacting dead center and sending little pieces flying everywhere, but the damn thing just kept coming!
“Why isn't it slowing down!?”, I asked as I reached into my vest for a new magazine.
“Just keep shooting!”, the guard shouted.
I smacked the charging handle on my rifle and lined up a face shot. I inhaled three times, exhaled once. I squeezed the trigger and sent the round down range. The large, .308 caliber slug ripped the creatures face apart. It let out a holler of pain, hissed, and fell over, dead as a door nail.
“Go!”, the guard said as we took off for the door.
We met up with the others half way. I could hear my ships engines starting to prime up. The door was in reach, just as we made the door, it slammed shut, stopping us in our tracks.
“Class 1 Quarantine initiated”, a voice echoed over the intercoms, “no entry or exit granted until further notice.”
