Alien, page 26
The screeching roar of the Queen was deafening. She charged in the marines’ direction, her tail snapping and cracking as loudly as the bolts of lightning hit the ground all around them.
“That’s right!” Roots shouted. “Bring it this way, you bitch.” He jogged backward as he fired, while Alec circled around the Queen toward Siobhan.
Siobhan spied a long metal rod, splintered at one end, and bent to pick it up. It was heavy, but manageable. She hoisted it up and strode after their foe.
Both Roots and Alec kept heavy fire on the Queen, but Siobhan could tell they were still exhausted. They were both limping, and their weapons seemed to be doing little good. The holes blasted into the Queen’s exoskeleton hissed and oozed blood which sent up steam when it struck the ground, instantly killing any vegetation beneath her as she walked. She shrugged off each hit and closed the distance between herself and Roots.
When Alec got too close to her flank, she smacked him hard with her tail, snapping his weak leg like a twig. He let out a bellow and went down on one knee.
“Alec!” Siobhan screamed, but her voice was lost beneath the thunder. She considered dropping the metal spike and running to him, but if there was a chance, any chance, of keeping them alive, then she had to take it.
Roots kept firing as he backed away, but the creature kept coming, so Siobhan kept following. When his gun finally ran out of ammo, he tossed it aside and braced himself, peering up at the alien in defiance. A bolt of lightning behind him churned up the ground, but he didn’t seem to notice.
All his attention was fixed on the monster towering over him.
“Come on,” he said one last time, pounding his chest. “Let’s get this done.”
Before Siobhan could act, the Xenomorph Queen’s tail whiplashed around and buried itself in Roots’s chest. He clutched it and spit a wad of blood at her. She lifted him up and dashed him against the ground, once, twice, a third time, then shook off his broken body.
Then she turned her attention back to Siobhan.
Alec, though, wouldn’t give her a chance. He began firing at the Queen again, drawing both her wrath and her attention. She turned and charged in his direction, bearing down on him.
Siobhan ran toward the Queen from behind. She thought Roots and Alec had an idea of what she had been planning. Roots had kept the alien distracted as long as he could, and now Alec was picking up where his squad mate had left off. Both were willing to give their lives to see the monster taken down. Siobhan was going to see to it that Roots’s sacrifice paid off.
The Queen’s tail snapped around again, sailing for Alec’s heart.
Before it could find its mark, however, Siobhan thrust up and out with the metal spike, spearing the creature in the back. With all her strength, she leaned in on the spike and forced it through the exoskeleton, into the organs beneath, and out the other side.
The Queen pitched her head back and howled, clawing at the metal protruding from her chest. It was a helpless, hopeless gesture, not unlike what Siobhan had seen McGowan and Roots do when speared by the spiked tail.
The thunder clapped overhead. Hail assaulted Siobhan’s bad shoulder. Her voice was hoarse, her throat raw, but when the Queen turned on her and eclipsed the thunder with her roar, Siobhan screamed back.
The Queen took three steps toward Siobhan—three alarmingly large steps—before a bolt of lightning hit the tip of the pole in her chest. The electricity sparked and sizzled as it traveled the length of the metal and into the creature’s body and, for several seconds, her whole frame was wracked with spasms. Her exoskeleton smoked where seams split open, and the smell of burning flesh assailed Siobhan’s nose.
When the Queen collapsed, the ground beneath Siobhan’s feet shook, and the alien’s final scream faded into the keening wind. The immense body lay in a smoking heap, finally still.
Siobhan cried out in relief and ran to Alec, who was trying unsuccessfully to stand on his broken leg. Pain was etched into his features. Tears of relief mixed with the rain on her cheeks as she hauled him up on her good shoulder and helped him limp-hop on his good leg back toward the Astraeus.
“You did it,” he said into her ear as they reached the doorway of the ship. “I’m so proud of you.”
“We did it,” she corrected him.
“I love you,” he blurted out, and for a moment, she was taken aback. She looked up at him, amazed.
“I—I’m sorry, I—” he began.
She cut him off with a kiss, this time a real one, long and passionate. When she finally pulled away, she said, “I love you, too.”
Abruptly, lights in the sky cut through the gray, outdoing the lightning. Siobhan and Alex looked up, doing their best to shield their faces from the hail and against the blinding glare. It was a ship—an ICSC ship with the name Soteria stenciled on the side—and it was landing near the conference center.
They made their slow, painfully battered way in its direction and reached the ship just as the hatch opened. A large black man with a handsome but serious face sauntered out, shielding his eyes from the wind and the rain.
“You Siobhan McCormick?” he asked in a deep voice.
“Yes,” she replied. “I am.”
He cracked the beginnings of a smile. “Want a ride home?”
E P I L O G U E
General John Urban was the last of the joint chiefs to be appointed following the disaster on LV-846. The public story was that a deadly fire had been started by a violent lightning storm. It was true that the season usually brought several months of calm, but weather was unpredictable. That was as true on LV-846 as on Earth or anywhere else in the galaxy.
Privately, Urban and the other new Joint Chiefs launched an investigation into Assistant Commandant General Vaughn’s complicity in the bio-warfare attack on the summit. It was a common goal across governments that allowed for an armistice between the UA, the UPP, and the ICSC.
All of them had received the same transmission from a scientist named Siobhan McCormick; all of them had received the attached files which detailed Vaughn’s conspiracy to utilize Weyland-Yutani scientists affiliated with a shadow government group known only as Deep Void, and to replicate the Plagiarus Praepotens pathogen materials taken from an Engineer’s ship.
Vaughn had—according to the file—commissioned these scientists to mass-produce the replicated pathogen on a planet with which none of the Joint Chiefs or their liaisons were familiar—V-591, a barren, inhospitable, uncolonized world in the Beta Trianguli Australis Star System. It seemed from the files that Vaughn’s primary objective had been to take out the Joint Chiefs and assume control of the United American Allied Command. With the pathogen bombs she could create a galaxy-wide panic, and thus, a need for her newly seized military, hired out to those who could pay the most.
Deep Void, however, had other reasons for bombing the colonies across UA, UPP, 3WE, and ICSC space. The file had no information that would identify who they were, who was in control of their group, or what their objectives were beyond bombing the colonies. The research referred to them as a “shadow government organization” and to the signature of the bombs as “clearly designed and delivered by members of Deep Void.”
Beyond that, there was nothing.
There was no one to hold accountable other than Vaughn, and she was, as had been a saying on Earth, “in the wind.” It was generally believed that Deep Void had extracted her when word of her involvement became public, and that she was hiding out wherever they were.
It bothered Urban deeply that there were no other answers to explain such a horrific tragedy. Even the scientist McCormick couldn’t be found. UPP and ICSC scientists independently verified the files as authentic UA military research, but the woman who had brought the information to light was a ghost. She had disappeared with the original drive.
It kept Urban up at night, wondering.
He supposed, though, that if any good had come out of all of it, the truce between the governments was it. The colonies might not yet be safe from Vaughn and the Deep Void and their pathogen bombs, but for now they were safe from war with their own people.
* * *
Siobhan sighed happily and stretched out in her porch chair. She looked up and waved at Alec, who was down the beach a ways, sanding his fishing boat. He smiled and waved back, glanced up at the sky, and then walked the length of beach back to their little bungalow.
For six months they’d been living on an isolated part of a beach on the moon LM-490, and it had been everything Siobhan had ever heard about the place and more. Alec climbed the stairs—still with a bit of a limp from when he’d had his knee shattered, but he had otherwise healed nicely—and joined her on one of the porch chairs. They held hands and watched the sun setting over the ocean.
This was how they spent most evenings, enjoying each other in the quiet glow of sunset, far from corporations and politics, science, and the military. Siobhan kept a garden of plants imported from all over the galaxy, and it was thriving and beautiful. Alec hunted for food and fished for sport. They made or traded for whatever they needed, and they were happy.
Sometimes—more often than not, if she were to be honest—Alec had nightmares, bad ones, and Siobhan still hadn’t quite grown comfortable with even small fires in a fireplace or fire pit. When it rained, Siobhan felt it not just in her burned arm and bad shoulder, but in her soul. Alec did, too, but despite these things—or maybe because they had survived them—they were happy. They were together.
They were, in fact, so wrapped up in their new normal that they didn’t think much about the meteors shooting across the sky. The sun had set, and the uninhabited planet they orbited, Naraka, was out, full and bright. The falling space debris formed little dark spots, like un-stars, Siobhan thought, across its planetscape. They had to be exceedingly close, though, to be so noticeable, and Siobhan said so.
“They’re passing between us and the planet,” Alec said in his endearing I know a science thing voice. She loved when he tried to talk science with her, usually making things up once he ran out of facts, just to see her laugh. “It’s a tight orbit, but still large enough that—”
His words cut off and his face went ashen.
Frowning, Siobhan followed his gaze back up to the sky to see a number of those lights wink out as they hit the planet. The spread of black upon impact seemed visible, even from so far away.
“Alec?” Her voice shook. “What is that?”
She already knew, though.
Alec’s expression said it all. He took Siobhan’s hand and led her inside, and they held each other while they peered through a window and watched the pathogen bombs fall, inexplicably, on a dead world.
A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
Mary would like to thank her family, Brian Keene, Steve Savile, Clara Čarija and Philippa Ballantine, Alex White, Nick Landau, Vivian Cheung, Elora Hartway, Dan Coxon, Kevin Eddy, Julia Lloyd, Nicole Spiegel, and Kendrick Pejoro.
A B O U T T H E A U T H O R
Mary SanGiovanni is an award-winning American horror and thriller writer of over a dozen novels, including The Hollower trilogy, Alien: Enemy of My Enemy, the Kathy Ryan series, and others, as well as numerous novellas, short stories, comics (including a Wonder Woman story for DC), and non-fiction. Her work as been translated internationally. She has a Masters degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, Pittsburgh, and is currently a member of The Authors Guild, The International Thriller Writers, and Penn Writers. She is currently a co-host of The Ghost Writers Podcast, and a co-runner of the Borderlands Bootcamp. She has the distinction of being one of the first women to speak about writing at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA, and offers talks and workshops on writing around the country. Born and raised in New Jersey, she currently resides in Pennsylvania with her partner, Brian Keene, and a colony of cats.
SPECIAL BONUS
T R O J A N H O R S E
WRITING AND CARTOGRAPHY BY
Andrew E.C. Gaska
EDITED BY
Tomas Härenstam and Nils Karlén
“There were two thousand, one hundred and three marines on this ship. Men and women with families. Sons and daughters. I’m not sure how many are left. Our guns only make it worse, with the corrosive substance they have for blood. I think I’m going to have to crash the ship.”
CAPTAIN ANGELA FORRESTER
This short adventure is a one-act Cinematic scenario for the ALIEN Roleplaying Game by Free League Publishing. It is designed to give you a brief taste of ALIEN cinematic gameplay. In this scenario, the players take the roles of a group of Colonial Marines operating out of Conestoga-class Transport Frigate USS Alexiares from the Enemy of My Enemy novel proper.
WHAT IS A ROLEPLAYING GAME?
Roleplaying is a unique form of gaming that combines tabletop dice rolling with cooperative storytelling. Roleplaying games give you a set of rules and let you and your friends create your own story. One of you assumes the role of the Game Mother, a guide to lead the others—the Player Characters or PCs for short—through the scenario. The Game Mother also assumes the roles of supporting characters—called non-player characters or NPCs—and any alien lifeforms the PCs may face.
WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY
The scenario requires the ALIEN Roleplaying Game core rulebook or starter set to play, both published separately by Free League Publishing. You’ll also need several six-sided dice, preferably of two different colors—one for regular dice rolls, and another for when rolling for stress. Engraved custom dice for this purpose are available for purchase.
THE GAME MOTHER
As the Game Mother, you should familiarize yourself with both the Enemy of My Enemy novel and this scenario before play. Your players, however, will find the experience most enjoyable if they wait to read the novel until after play. Have your players choose their characters from the four included and read the intro text “What’s the Story, MU/TH/UR” to them.
GETTING STARTED
Give your players the option to play mechanical engineer Corporal Tonfa, hospital corpsman Corporal Abilio, smart gunner PFC Carlisle, or android adjutant Gene without showing them the character bios. After they choose, allow them access to their character’s information only—each bio contains information that is not meant for the other PCs. You’ll have to copy the character stats out of this book for your players to have in front of them for gameplay.
PERSONAL AGENDAS
Each character has a Personal Agenda listed on their character sheets. These agendas can put PCs at odds with each other, so tell your players not to reveal them to the other players.
THE SITUATION
Under the command of Captain Angela Forrester aboard the USS Alexiares, the player characters are amongst the 2,103 Marines sent by USCMC Assistant Commandant General Vaughn to provide security for the UAAC Joint Chiefs at an important summit meeting on the planet LV-846. In addition, their ship is delivering important cargo to the summit.
The scenario begins with the PCs’ marine squad coming out of cryosleep, ready to take on their security assignment. Unfortunately, they find that most of the marines aboard are dead or dying—having been viciously attacked by something… alien.
A NOTE FROM MU/TH/UR:
While they do not know much about Xenomorphs other than rumors, the player characters have been briefed on the Border Bombings from the ALIEN novel Inferno’s Fall, and the ALIEN RPG books Destroyer of Worlds and the Colonial Marines Operations Manual—mysterious attackers have been dropping mutagenic black pathogens on innocent Frontier colonies.
WHAT’S THE STORY, MU/TH/UR?
Read this aloud to your players:
Coming out of cryosleep, you’ve awoken to alarm klaxons and chaos! The cryosleep bay is a mess: almost as if there was a brawl here. While you hear lots of shouting in the distance, you are the only ones present—your pods were the last to open. Aside from the android Gene, you all feel like shit—a typical physical response to coming out of stasis abruptly. Suddenly the alarms dull and the ship-wide address system crackles to life.
“Attention all marines—this is Captain Forrester. The Alexiares has been compromised. A bioweapon smuggled aboard the ship is killing everyone—nasty human-sized bugs called Biodrones. Do not hesitate to shoot on sight. I am cornered in the Officer’s Quarters and it is imperative that I get to the bridge. I need an armed security escort here ASAP. If you are incapable of reaching me, rendezvous with Lieutenant Vandenberg in the garage and cargo bay to set up a perimeter. We’ll make our last stand there.”
Proceed to Kicking off the Action here.
WHAT THE HELL IS REALLY GOING ON?
The summit-related cargo aboard the USS Alexiares is a deadly bioweapon. Released prematurely by the ship’s android adjutant Gene (here), the Biodrones wreaking havoc aboard the ship are genetically-engineered variants of Xenomorph XX121 (here). What’s worse, Assistant Commandant General Vaughn is responsible for the situation. She intended to use the Biodrones to assassinate those at the summit and assume control of the United Americas Allied Command.
The general sent Gene—an android with a higher security clearance than the Captain—to monitor and maintain the cargo. Vaughn’s orders conflicted with Gene’s behavioral protocols, causing him to malfunction. Weighing the consequences, his subconscious decided it was better to release the Biodrones aboard the Alexiares in the hopes that someone would stop them and save the summit. He dumped the Alexiares’ fuel stores and destroyed all external comms, dropships, landing craft, and EEVs to prevent anyone from escaping. Hoping they could destroy the creatures, the confused Gene has now awoken the remaining marine forces—including the other PCs. He is feigning ignorance of the situation while he tries to decide what he wants to do.
