Chapter 20

  (Complex-Complex Clone-100008776)

  The clone raged against the terrible fate of his people. Citadelian are all clones of the Citadelian progenitor, himself a hybrid of an Okaaran and a Branx Warrior. They were all sterile and could not reproduce naturally and relied on cloning technology to reproduce. He was one of those who escaped the Hunter of Tamaran’s onsught on his people’s combined fleet.

  They’ve lost their core worlds and colonies because of the Hunter’s relentless bloodthirst for their people; she had called them abominations and a scourge to be excised from the stars.

  But he brought the survivors to safety after hiding for months in a direction the Hunter of Tamaran would never find them. However, his people cked resources and food to feed themselves, forcing them to turn to piracy.

  It was after seven successful raids on Thanagar's resource colonies that the pirate band got approached by the Hyathis Corporation. The Hyathis CEO came with her own fleet and threatened the, at the time, small Citadelian fleet and made an offer to 100008776 that he couldn't refuse.

  This brought a complete change to how the Citadelian fleet operated as they received funding, refitted their ships with updated technology and were made to attack specific targets that the Hyathis Corporation wished for. They attacked Thanagar principally as it seems that the CEO wants that particur pnet for its Nth metal deposit.

  The woman in charge was fixated on it for some strange reason. Still, 100008776 wasn't paid to ask questions; they were paid well and actually thrived despite becoming a ragtag bunch of murderers. The Citadelians were already considered scum if the clone thought about it, they had warred against and ensved many races in the Lyra consteltion.

  But again it all stopped when they started their war with Tamaran… 100008776 was thirsting for revenge. Once his people got more ships they will one day go back and end those damn Troqs* (A racial slur against Tameraneans which means: stupid, useless) from the face of the universe…

  The lighting in the Captain's cabin became red and a loud foghorn-like sound rang on the internal speaker system. RED ALERT! HOSTILE FLEET DETECTED!

  “What!?” The clone stood up from his chair.

  A holo-screen manifested from his desk, showing ten ships past the Oort cloud and making a beeline for the third pnet and its moons where the habitats and shipyard were located. The clone captain circled around his desk and exited his cabin, turned left from the corridor and walked briskly toward the elevator which led him to the central deck where the bridge and CIC was.

  100008776 passed through the door after typing his code to unseal them as they were in an emergency situation. When he entered, the clone immediately asked one of the bridge officers, “How did they find us?!”

  The officer charged with radar reported immediately. “We have no idea, captain!”

  “Founder damnit!” The clone captain punched the wall next to him, frustration evident on his face.

  Another officer interrupted 100008776 and cried out, “I don't recognize the configuration of those ships, sir!”

  On the screen, the holographic construct showed ships of unknown configuration slowly advancing toward them… the Captain growled and walked up to the communication station and punched a button on the console and commanded, “Everyone to Battle Stations!”

  ~/.\~

  (Navigation Officer, Jane Foster)

  Draco ConsteltionDraconis Gamma star systemHyper-Dimension's bridge

  Jane looked at the representation of the Draconis Gamma star system they discovered thanks to the scanning technology on their ship. It was marvelous that such powerful instruments existed on this ship, able to cartograph a star system in one breath while it would have taken years on Earth to do the same.

  It didn't sit well with Jane how she obtained a position on the ship, she hadn't been trained for it, and she wasn't a warrior. But the existence of the crew augment package, the learning pod and the virtual reality technology onboard the Hyperdimension made such considerations moot. Jane obtained all the training and skills she needed through those mediums.

  If needed, Jane was skilled enough to defend against hostile boarders, and she trained often with the ex-Widow trainees, who made up 30% of the crew. They were ready to unch an Assault once the support ships and troops were done mobilizing.

  Komand'r, who had been silent as they approached the gas giant, ordered the ships to stay at 0.5 AU from the pnet. The support ships entered into a grid pattern centered around the Hyperdimension; Jane didn’t know why Komand'r chose that one.

  “TALI, please unch half of our drone starfighters.” Jane heard the captain's order.

  [Launching.]

  On the holographic astrometric dispy, Jane saw X-shaped fighters unch from the Hyperdimension's Drone bay. Jane counted them, and there were 10 wings of starfighters in diamond formation fanned before the support ships.

  “Comms, hail them. Voice only.” Komand’r’s voice was so cold, gone was the happy-go-lucky alien princess, now all Jane could see next to her was a military leader.

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Jane saw the bridge officer's hand glide across the holographic interface and proceeded to open a communication channel to broadcast on every frequency possible. Komand'r began to speak, “This is the Captain of the Hyperdimension, affiliated with the Tamaranean Empire. Per the Gactic Council w 1837, for the act of Piracy: Whosoever, with intent to commit at the time of or immediately before or immediately after committing the crime of piracy in respect of any pnet, colony, habitat, ship or vessel, shall assault, with intent to rape, pilge murder, or ensve; any sapient being on board of or belonging to such spaceship or star-faring vessel, or shall stab, cut, or wound any such being, or unwfully do any act by which the life of such being may be endangered, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to imprisonment for life or execution.”

  Komand'r added, in an imperious tone, “Lower your shields and surrender yourselves and your ships. Resistance is futile.”

  Jane was nervous as they waited for an answer to the hail. The bridge crew didn't even flinch when a holo-screen appeared, showing a tall, bck, and dark blue muscur alien that resembled a Terran goril. His skin seemed rather solid as well, like stone.

  “Who in the Forsaken Depths are you? The Tamaranean Starforce has no jurisdiction outside of the Vega system!” The Citadelian questioned with a baleful gre.

  The being looked quite hideous, in Jane's honest opinion; she saw that in the background, there were others like him. *No, they look identical.*

  Jane immediately pulled information about the Citadelians from the Hyperdimension's Codex. The data about them expined that Citadelians were not a true species and couldn't reproduce. They were all clones with limited intelligence and imagination and relied upon their ‘progenitor’ for prosperity. There was more data to read on them, but Jane didn't have the time to study it as she heard Komand’r’s answer.

  “The Citadel Races and their allies have never surrendered formally.” Komand'r dismissed the Citadelian captain's argument.

  Jane saw the Citadelian captain's hideous face morph into an uglier, furious look. He smmed his fist on a console, sparking. “We will not surrender; we will die before subjecting ourselves to your justice system! It's no different from death! We outnumber you! We will turn you into chattel; you troq aren't good for anything else!”

  The brunette understood what he meant. Tamaranean w didn't tolerate piracy; they spaced you just for being part of a pirate crew. Svery was abhorrent to freedom-loving people. Jane was slowly getting the idea that they might be right.

  The Tamaranean princess smiled at the screen. “Thank you.”

  Jane shivered as she saw the predatory smile etched on her captain's face. That alien didn't know what was going to hit him as he continued to insult Komand'r. “What for, you bloody troq?”

  She didn't know what a troq was, but Jane surmised it wasn't good as all the Tamaranean bridge officers looked angry. Leaning backward, Komand’r kept her expression even as she made her orders, “Communication, open visuals on our end.”

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  When the screen split in two, showing how the Citadelian received the video, Jane saw the enemy captain open his eyes and mouth in shock. He stepped away from the screen as he saw Komand'r. He looked utterly terrified. “You… you are-!”

  He wasn't the only one, the enemy bridge crew watched Komand'r on screen with terrified expressions, as if they were seeing the devil himself.

  With calm and precise inflection, Komand’r said, “I've given you a chance to surrender and you refused it. Now, I am free to… mercilessly eliminate you all.”

  The reaction to her words made Jane flinch as she heard the Citadelian captain roar and push a button on a console. “Attack! Everyone, attack! The Hunter has come for us!”

  The video feed cut after this and on the astrometrics dispy the ship activity rose around the facilities on the nearest moon orbiting the gas giant. Many frigates and cruiser sized spaceships made a beeline toward the Hyperdimension's flotil.

  “That's a lot of ships, captain.” Jane found herself saying out loud to Komand'r who snorted in ridicule, not concerned at all.

  On the armrest of the command chair, Komand'r pushed a button and started speaking, “Attention all hands, as you know we're going to attack the pirates using this star system as a base of operation. I urge you to all don your EVA suits as we enter combat.”

  She switched off the button and turned her chair to the tactical officer. “Tactical.”

  The Tamaranean tactical officer seemed eager to enter battle. “Yes, captain?”

  “Tell Koldonn to prepare the space marines, they will sortie soon,” Komand'r said with a stoic expression.

  “Yes, ma'am!” He turned back to his console and started giving orders.

  Komand’r’s chair closed, the computer integrated in arm showing her information. Jane heard the captain speak out loud as she watched the pirates converge toward them. “We're going to soften them up first. TALI, I see that one of the previous hidden systems has revealed itself. Can you expin what it does?”

  The voice of the ship's Cybernetic Intelligence made itself known. [The Angel Light Bridge is a battlefield dominance weapon that enacts sophisticated energy control over a projected 'core' manifested outside the ship's hull. Once active, this allows for a potentially fleet-sying projection of a near-unending onsught of energy condensed into beams and tracking warheads.]

  The captain's eyes literally sparkled with mischief. “Oh, interesting. Tactical, start it up. Target the group of ships at the following coordinates.”

  “Roger. Coordinates entered. Hyperspace Tap at 95%.” The officer reported.

  On the astrometric dispy, Jane saw a sphere of energy coalescing outside the ship's starboard side. Her eyes widened when she saw the projected arc and range of the weapon. It took one minute to charge the energy; on the central holo-screen on the bridge numbers started appearing, showing that the energy core had reached critical mass.

  “Ready to fire.” The tactical officer reported.

  Komand'r said, “Mark. Fire Angel Light Bridge.”

  A cone of white energy fired from the core. It separated into thousands of beams and… reached for the left fnk of the pirate ship's formation. The beams tore through the Citadelian ships like tofu, completely ignoring any shields and armored hulls they had. Some of them were vaporized or missing a big chunk of their structure. To Jane, it was an horrific spectacle of devastation, from 47 ships, only 32 were left.

  “Targets eliminated, captain.”

  “Angel Light Bridge on cooldown.”

  Komand'r admired the handiwork of the ship's weapon. “Not bad.” The captain leaned further in her seat. “Open communication.”

  “Alright, captain.”

  With a smug smile, Komand’r said when the image of the Citadelian pirate captain appeared on screen, “What were you saying? You outnumber us?”

  The pirate growled, “You monster!”

  ~/.\~

  (General overview)

  The destruction of the pirate ships created a small lull in the battle, giving time to Komand'r and her forces to deploy. Three transport ships were being filled with Space Marines to board the space stations and the shipyard in system.

  TALI unched two starfighter wings to act as a big distraction for the remaining intact pirate ships, and started to harass them. Each team boarding the troop transport ships was composed of one Sorceress, some of the Asgardian recruits with the Tamaranean space Marines.

  MACHINA searched the facilities with her scanners and discovered where the sves taken by the Citadelians were located. Komand'r decided to send the ex-Widows in stealth shuttles to secure the sves and take over the facilities from the inside while taking down the enemy ships.

  It was in the first five minutes of the conflict that the transport ships unched filled with warriors eager to prove themselves.

  ~/.\~

  (Commander Koldonn)

  We boarded the unnamed Spirit css transport 01, it was a disposable ship because of how expendable it was considered. It was all armor and speed, and designed to bring the support vehicles and troops to their designated location. They were armed with decent firepower and protected by sturdy shields.

  As Koldonn sat on the seat, he felt the gravity and inertia dampers pull him down. He looked forward and saw Skurge sit, the Asgardian wearing upgraded armor made by MACHINA and Amora's most talented Enchantress. He had settled and adapted well in the ranks of the Space Marine contingent. The man was eager for this conflict and wanted to prove himself.

  Koldonn's gaze slid on the other twenty recruits, this would become their first real action. The training they had gone through in the Murder Deck in the st week had tested them and taught them teamwork and built bonds of camaraderie between them. He hoped this happened with the magic users part of the crew; this nonsense about warrior elitism needed to stop.

  The artificial Tamaranean saw Amora tense, she was reacting as if she was having a discussion. She must be having a Telepathic conversation with one of her students or the Princess. Her highness, Komand'r, was always biased when it came to her ancestral enemies.

  As he noticed Amora's uncomfortable expression, Komand’r must be asking her to do something that didn't sit well with her. Then Koldonn remembered how his highness had treated HYDRA. *This is going to suck.*

  Ding!

  Looking at his HUD, Koldonn read, [New orders: Secure the computers' databases inside the facilities.]

  The Commander frowned, the mission objective changed. Looking up at Amora, “Lady Amora?”

  The sorceress stared at him. “Yes, Koldonn?”

  “I have received new orders from TALI.”

  She grimaced. “I'm in the same Drakkar, Komand’r commanded me to rape the enemies’ mind to secure Intel.”

  “It seems that her highness is in a bad pce.” The Commander said as he heard the announcement from the pilot that they were about to leave.

  He braced himself and held on to the armrests of his seat. Koldonn could feel the thrum of the transport's engines as it unched from the hangar bay. Koldonn used his HUD to look at the environment around the ship; he saw the transport ship leave and the pilot activate the Hyperdrive micro-jump.

  They covered the distance between the Hyperdimension and the moon's orbit where the pirate facilities are located in a snap. It was at this point that the patrol ship came under fire by the static defenses around the satellite.

  Unfortunately for the defenders, the transport's shields held. Whatever energy weapons they were using were ineffective. This is what happened when you used sub-par technologies. The ship reached orbit and the pilot evaded the beam attacks thrown by the cannon mounted on the central facility.

  The pilot unched two torpedoes, one was destroyed by a strafing turret, but the second one reached the cannon and neutralized it. Koldonn smiled at the big white incandescent ball that the infernal device had become.

  “Everyone get ready!” The Commander braced himself.

  The ship shook as it stopped over the facility, and Koldonn pushed the lever to the ramp of the transport that deployed at the back.

  “GO!”

  The space marines were the first to stand; they ran to the exit of the transport ship and jumped. Some of those fuckers ughed as they did it as it was the first time they exited the ship. Amora looked at Koldonn, then harrumphed; she turned to the Asgardian recruits and used her magic to teleport everyone and herself.

  The Commander shook his head, he often forgot how snobbish his highness’ consort was. He pulled the lever of the ramp and before it closed flew to join his men down on the red moon's surface.

  Koldonn checked his wrist bsters mid-flight and noticed the turrets still shooting at his people.

  “Target the turrets.” Koldonn commanded his troops on the tactical network.

  He pointed his wrists toward the infernal contraption and fired an overloaded particle beam at the turret on the left. One shot and the annoying weapon was destroyed; Koldonn saw his space marines take care of the other defensive weapons with perfect accuracy.

  Inevitably, they nded after flying around and securing the perimeter. Koldonn asked himself where Amora and the Asgardian recruits were, but when he saw the doors to the facility open, and through the blue magnetic field that kept the atmosphere inside, he saw Amora and her warriors inside of a loading bay. The sorceress was glowing with a green aura of magic shrouded around her body.

  “We neutralized the defenses and the robots inside, come.” Amora said through the tacnet with a smug grin on her face.

  His expression showing surprise, Koldonn asked, “How did you…?”

  “MACHINA scanned this facility, and I teleported me and the recruits inside with Space magic.” Amora sounded proud of herself.

  The synthetic Tamaranean frowned as he said, “You should have taken us with you, Lady Amora.”

  The woman looked confused, she tilted her head as she replied, “You needed to secure the perimeters.”

  Koldonn sighed. This was the problem with people like Amora, she was originally a loner and had no idea how to work with others.

  “My Lady, communication is key in that kind of operation…”

  [You two, focus.] The voice of their captain rang on the tacnet.

  Komand'r didn't sound too happy. Koldonn and Amora found themselves saying in unison, “Yes your highness/my Lady.”

  [Good. Don't bother taking prisoners. Only the leader of the pirates will have any information. I expect good results.]

  Koldonn looked at the sorceress who looked a bit ashamed; he decided to let it go, this would serve as a good lesson for her. The synthetic Tamaranean replied, “We will not disappoint you.”

  Half of the Space Marine stayed outside the facility, the other half followed Koldonn inside, he had computers to secure…

  ~/.\~

  (Complex-Complex Clone-1011108768776)

  Zap! Zap!

  The sounds of energy weapon firing could be heard in the shielded barricade. The forcefield held those armored Troqs from passing the corridor to the sve pens. It all changed when the armored enemies stopped shooting at the forcefield and targeted the emitters in the ceiling and ground-floor instead.

  The field shut off and they were all completely exposed. That's when they all started dying. 1011108768776 ran, using his comrades as shields and ignoring their cry as the red beams of their energy rifles tore them apart mercilessly, ignoring their armors and personal forcefields.

  It wasn't like those corpos assholes told them at all! Their armor was supposed to be the best thing this side of the gaxy! The shields they gave them too have been so useful and reliable against the birds, Vernathian and the Kree's military. But not against the fucking Troqs? Preposterous!

  When did the Tamaranean get ahold of such advanced technologies? But it wasn't just Tamaraneans attacking them, he recognized Asgardians as well. He finished running when he got to the nearest sector near the sve pens. 1011108768776 saw the nearest workstation in the Warden office and decided to ask for reinforcement.

  The computer booted up and the citadelian guard used the app to connect to the military network. He reached out to the nearest ship this way and the call connected to the dreadnought bridge officer charged with communication.

  When the face of the officer appeared, the clone spouted immediately, “We need help. They entered facility Alpha! We're dying in there!”

  An entire ptoon of guards was wiped out thanks to those armored fucks. The officer said while panicking, “We’re tied in battle, we cannot send any ship!”

  1011108768776's eyes widened and he felt outrage rising in his two hearts. “You’d let us die here!?”

  Boom! The holo-screen disappeared after he heard the sound of an explosion. The clone was shocked, “Did he just hang up on me?!”

  The facility trembled and the clone received a warning about seismic activities as a ship crashed into the small moon. He shook his head as he mented, “This isn’t a fight anymore, but a founder damned massacre…”

  Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. The clone heard the dreaded footsteps of one of the armored soldiers coming. The door to the Warden office opened and a blue armored soldier holding a rge silver axe with a glowing psma edge appeared. The clone reached for his rifle and shot at the armored figure lunging at him, but the blue psma beam barely slowed down the soldier.

  The blue armored soldier raised his axe and the clone screamed, “No! No! Don't “

  The axe fell, and the clone's personal shield fizzled, as the hit overwhelmed it. Another hit if the ax bit into his neck. “Aaaargh!”

  The clone was killed on the third strike, blood erupted from the breached armor.

  ~/.\~

  (Skurge)

  Skurge pulled his winged helmet from his head, the suit depressurizing. He spat on the Citadelian clone and started to clean the head of his psma axe after decapitating the fleeing Citadelian. He felt no pity or mercy for the enemy. Pilging, raping, sving scums needed to be taken care of.

  This raid has been a rush so far, they freed the sves already and were guarding them, to stop the Citadelian from taking them as hostages. Captain Komand'r knew how Citadelian acted, they were dishonorable and brutish cowards and they proved it when they selfishly abandoned their comrades to escape.

  Skurge had followed that soldier in the Warden room to execute the st Citadelian in this sector of the facility. He understood what Captain Komand'r meant about the enemies now, why she didn't think them worthy of the rules of war. If the Citadelian didn't have any sves in systems, she would have blown that fleet and moon to Kingdom come. Skurge could get behind that, Princess Komand’r was a wise general in battle; she denied her enemies resources and from the orders they received, Skurge could intuit that she was intent on following the money.

  There was no way that those pirates built their base without help, someone was funding them. When this operation was over, there might be a great shuffle in the local power bance. Skurge finished cleaning his axe, sighed and put on his winged helmet.

  “Time to go back to work.” No one will stop him, he did all this for Asgard, for the Hyperdimension, and for himself.

  ~/.\~

  (Milena, Melinda, Misha)

  Melinda was happy with her lot in life, the Hyperdimension was the promised nd for every ex-widow trainee. Some have elected to forgo the path of battle and become engineers, nurses, cooks or librarians. The rest became pilots for shuttles, fighters or what MACHINA calls infiltrators.

  The ex-Widows have pretty much aligned themselves with MACHINA, TALI favored the Tamaranean much more. The Smart AI provided technologies with the Bck Widows’ skills in mind; assassination, infiltration, intelligence gathering, mastery of exotic weapons and martial arts.

  Stealth, scanners, psma weaponry, capture tools, melee weapons, armors and vehicles. MACHINA went the distance for them. Their training in the Murder Deck to acclimatize with the new equipment was still ongoing; the triplets were the only ex-Widows ahead of their peers in their retraining.

  But Melinda and her sister were going to be tested right now. By order of the captain, the triplets were to infiltrate the boratory MACHINA had discovered thanks to the scanners. There was an area of it that the scanning instruments couldn't pierce.

  And now, the triplets arrived on the enemy's moon thanks to their stealthed shuttle, sidestepping the fleet battle going on in-system.

  [Excellent, we reached the moon's dark side.] MACHINA was directing the operation personally.

  If there's something that the triplets learned, it was that Artificial Intelligences were particurly nosey and curious. They liked to poke the bear, like American say… They disembark from the shuttle, psma rifle in hands and activate their stealth module on their left vambrace. All of a sudden, the light bends around them; thanks to their HUD, they could see each other thanks to an highlighted red color overy.

  They were entering through a service airlock that was guarded by a simple electronic lock.

  “Talk about the point of failure, this pce has no designated security.” Misha, the youngest, compined.

  “What do you expect from pirates? Hmph.” Harrumphed Milena as the airlock closed behind them.

  [The sub level in the basement is where we will find what those people hide.] MACHINA interrupted them as she projected a map of the b on their HUD with the location of their target.

  They entered the ground floor of the b, one of them securing the computers and affixing data siphons to their ports to allow MACHINA to hack into them and download their database. The triplets eventually found an elevator to the b's sub level, they checked their weapon and entered the transparisteel elevator cage.

  As they descended, the light came on and they saw a football field sized space. The ground was covered into eggs-like droppings. The triplets stayed calm but unlocked the safety on their rifles.

  MACHINA said on the tacnet, [Oh no… A Xenomorph incubation chamber!]

  Melinda received information on the Xenomorph species just by querying the databases of the Hyperdimension.

  [Internecivus raptus, an extraterrestrial hive-based endoparasitoid with a multi-staged life cycle, possibly originating from the pnet Xenomorph Prime. Known to be extremely deadly and hostile, these creatures require a host organism in order to reproduce. The appearance of the Xenomorph can vary depending on the host in which the embryo is impnted. It is considered Semi-Sapient, and dispys predatory behavior towards any living lifeforms, usually using stealth tactics to ambush its prey…]

  The pictures and information shown about the creature's life cycle were worrying to Melinda and her sisters…

  A typical Xenomorph begins its life cycle as an egg-like creature which, when detecting the presence of a potential host, opens up to release the second stage: a small arachnid-like life form also colloquially called a facehugger which unches itself onto the host's face and impregnates it with an endoparasitoid rva. This parasite then consumes parts of the host from within and violently emerges from the host's chest cavity as a worm-like creature which is grotesquely christened as the chestburster, which will quickly scurry away to find a safe pce where it can molt and complete its metamorphosis into an adult Xenomorph, which happens, surprisingly enough, over the course of mere hours.

  Melinda understood now why the pirates needed the sves they've taken from their world. They used them as a workforce and as experimental subjects!

  “Are they that dangerous, Mach?” Milena asked out loud as the elevator arrived at its destination and the doors opened.

  [Terribly so, be careful. I am going to ask for reinforcement. This is too big for you girls…] MACHINA replied with conviction.

  It was at this point that everything went pear shaped and a screeching roar rose into the sub level.

  SKREEEEE!

  The triplets froze at that moment, it was Misha who spoke first when she saw the creature jumping from a pilr. “Какого черта?! (What the hell?!)”

  The creature has a rge, armored, crown-like bck carapace on its head, it also has double-jointed hind legs, two sets of dorsal tubes, which are spike-like. Melinda noticed six digit hands — with the third finger being much longer than the others — and an extra armored shell on their chest in the form of another carapace.

  The tail behind it was long and segmented, with a rge, bde-like tip.

  MACHINA shouted at the creature’s sight, [Kill it, girls! Kill it with fire!!]

  Misha was the first to move out of the fear paralysis, her HUD picking up on her fight or flight instinct and the targeting computer locked onto the Queen Xenomorph. The sympathetic and biological link between the triplets causes the girls to focus.

  “Роджер (Roger).” The triplets said in unison.

  Misha was the first to shoot at the Queen who jumped on the side, avoiding the coherent red psma beam. Melinda took out a handful of the high-tech shuriken on her vambrace and shot them at Xenomorph; four of them were dodged but the fifth lodged itself into the right arm of the creature, green blood seeping from the wound. When the blood started pooling on the ground, it started sizzling as it began eating onto the metal surface of the grav-pte.

  [Be careful! It can spit acid and its blood is also acidic!] MACHINA warned them.

  The Queen charged them with preternatural speed.

  “Understood.” Melinda shot her netgun from her vambrace.

  The creature used its hind legs to jump in the air to escape the nanowire net. Milena chose that moment to switch her weapon from focused beam to pulsewave assault, shooting a wide, high-damage cone of energy at the Queen. It had nowhere to escape and the shot hit it and sent it crashing against the pilr six meters away from it. From the back of her suit, Misha’s psma give unfolded and she ran toward the creature.

  She unsheathed her give and the Queen spat acid at her; but just in time, Misha’s forcefield caught the acid spit. Misha’s superheated psma energy bde stabbed into the Queen’s chest, causing it to screech in pain. It opened its mouth in full and a second mouth appeared trying to hit Misha’s helmet; in vain as her forcefield protected her. The younger of the triplet took one of her psma grenades and shoved it into the creature’s mouth.

  [Hasta vista, baby.] Misha said to the Queen Xenomorph before jumping away.

  Before the Queen could spit the grenade, it went off and created a rge explosion. It took some of the eggs with it and part of the pilr holding the ceiling; fortunately it didn’t crumble on them yet. The Queen Xenomorph has been completely consumed by the psma grenade.

  [Fuck, Misha. That was badass!] MACHINA piped up, impressed by how they took down the Queen.

  Misha sauntered toward her sister and stopped while replying to the smart AI, “I know right, Mach?”

  Milena sounded exasperated when she asked her younger sister, “Really, Misha? A Terminator quote?”

  “It was appropriate!” Misha defended herself.

  Melinda came between her sister and said with a voice brokering no argument, “Girls focus, don’t forget about the eggs!”

  It was at this moment they heard a voice coming from the right. “Like I thought, you came for the Queen.”

  They turned only to see a golden skinned male of indeterminate species with orange hair, he wore a bck skinsuit covered by a b coat. There was a metallic and spherical small device in his hand.

  “Who are you?!” Melinda pointed her rifle at the being.

  MACHINA was swift enough to use the limited scanning instruments in the girls suit. [Scanning… subject matches the species known as Alstairan.]

  The info about the beings species appeared on Melinda's HUD. Alstairans are biologically human/pnt hybrids, they have telepathy and empathetic control over pnt life.

  The man shrugged, he looked rather bored as he said, “I am the scientist in charge of turning the Xenomorph into a viable weapon for my company.”

  [Smarter and more advanced people than you tried that, they all got eaten.] MACHINA mocked him.

  The bored expression was gone, the Alstairan smirked. “I succeeded though, and I will deliver the fruits of my research to my masters. Goodbye!”

  He poked a button on the sphere and… FLASH! The golden skinned humanoid alien had disappeared when their helmets’ system adapted to the light of the portable teleporter he had used.

  Melinda swore, “Ублюдок! (Motherfucker!)”

  “Language!” Misha piped up.

  [Damn, we're not done with all that shit yet…] MACHINA said as the Xenomorph eggs around started to open.

  A/N: Yes, Xenomorph! Hahahaha.

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