Drake rose to his feet, scowling. What the hell were Wey-Yu grunts doing here? He radioed the Autumn. "Drake to Autumn. I thought you said everyone had been captured or slaughtered."

"According to preliminary scans." It was the ship's resident AI.

"Have any ships arrived since we got here?"

"Negative."

"They must have got here just before us?" Varia commented as another knock came at the door. "Maybe they saw us arrive."

"You gonna let us in or what!"

Varia sighs and looked at Drake. "Sarge do we let them in?"

"What's the password?" Drake asked. He grinned, enjoying yanking their chains.

"What?!"

"You need the password!"

"You gotta be kidding me! What password?!"

"Password!" Drake barked again. "They gave it out at the staff meeting fifteen minutes ago!" He could almost hear them thinking, Meeting? What meeting?!

"We was out here!" one poor, illiterate bastard snapped.

Drake grinned at Varia. "Not supposed to let anyone in without it."

Another voice roared: "If the staff meeting just ended, no one outside is gonna know the fuckin' password! Now open up!"

Drake finally let them in. "The password was 'password', ladies."

Varia chuckled at the Sergeant's back and forth with the Wey-Yu PMCs. He was quite a witty man underneath that bravado. She shut the door as soon as all of them got inside. She looked them over with suspicion. "We didn't think anyone else was here..." She wondered why the corporation had sent in hired military separately to their unit. Did they not trust them to do this task properly? Or were they placing their cards in more than one team?

Regardless, she didn't trust them at all. And looked to her Sergeant who had an even more distrusting eye toward them.

"We don't have biometric trackers," the leader said. "And even then, we came in on a Spectre-class stealth shuttle. Officially, we aren't here."

"Grey area bullshit?" the sergeant asked. The answer was a nod. "Considering all the bugs, I find it no surprise."

"Well, it's two particular Xenomorphs." He took out a holographic projector and activated it. An alien was shown. It was larger than a normal Runner, with a more intricately design carapace on its skull. "This is Specimen 7UN4. The scientists called her Luna. Extremely intelligent, especially for a bug hatched from an animal."

The image changed. Drake recognized it as a Queen, but it was massive; the human next to it told them that she was easily twice the size of a normal Queen. Its hide was a stark white.

"Jesus Christ..." Drake whispered. "What is she?"

"Specimen UH001. When Wey-Yu started here they found a crashed ship of nonhuman origin. Inside was a humanoid, roughly eight to ten feet tall. It was dying, and my employers being the sick bastards they are, they impregnated it with a Queen Facehugger. They had a second, human-spawned Queen... but in the outbreak, UH001 killed her competition and assimilated the rival hive into hers."

Varia came over all pale, feeling sick to her stomach at seeing these pictures. Wey-Yu had truly gone too far this time. She had to make sure they didn't have anything left to experiment on. They risked infecting the Earth. And that's why this "private" Varia Crest who wasn't really a private at all, had hacked her way into the squad under a false identity. She had the necessary training behind her from some mercenaries that she had hired. She was here to destroy this facility, not to collect its data for Wey-Yu. She was a rogue agent, ex-government official who took matters into her own hands.

Luckily, she had not been found out by Wey-Yu yet. And hopefully she would not be found out until her job here was done. "So what are your orders here? Seek and destroy or try to capture one of these things in vain?" Varia asked sarcastically, knowing they would not succeed capturing the creatures.

"If all else fails, we kill them with the rest of the others," the merc said. "We take their DNA, we nuke the site from orbit, and then leave." Drake scowled.

"Stupid bastards. Weyland-Yutani has to learn what happens when they try to play God." He jabbed the leader in the chest with a mechanical finger. "I'll be damned if their DNA will keep being used for research. If I find that any of you try to smuggle those two out, or take their DNA, I'll rip your hearts out. Am I clear?"

None of the mercenaries seemed too pleased, but their leader nodded to them. "We'll get to that bridge when we get there. For now, consider this a joint operation, a sign of good faith from my employers."



Wyvern's Biomask translated everyhing, and stored the data about this White Queen. He knew what species the human was talking about. They were a powerful, advanced species on a higher technological tier than his own. These Engineers and the Yautja had fought about the humans; since the Yautja used them to breed the ultimate prey, the Engineers wanted nothing more than to wipe them out.

Varia nodded at the Sarge's comments, completely agreeing with him. She folded her arms. "Here, here." And then the other crew rallied behind her comment and showed their loyalty to their Sergeant. They were a unit and only together in solidarity they would be strong and triumph.

"Back to sleep, you dumb apes!" Drake barked. "I'll take watch now." Despite being the CO, he wouldn't take advantage of his rank. As the mercs went upstairs he stopped Varia, lowering his voice. "Keep an eye on them, Crest. They're a necessary evil, but more evil than necessary, I believe."

Varia looked deadly serious into Drake's eye. She had a fiery glint behind those big blue pearls. "Roger that, Sir." She was professional but something in her tone made her seem like she took it to heart more than just following a simple order. But her voice instructed the sarge that he could trust her to do this task.

The sergeant patted Varia on the shoulder. "Good. If anyone needs me, I'll be downstairs." He stayed on the first floor, minding the sentry guns.



Wyvern made his report to the Elders of his clan. <Kill the White Queen,> the head of the Council ordered. <You will bring great honor to us. Few in our tribe have ever killed a human-spawned Queen; fewer still have killed a White Queen in our species' history.> The young Predator nodded, clicking.

<On my honor.> He cut the connection.

Varia stood guard over the Wey-Yu squad as her comrades slept. She looked down at her wrist com and the time was 3am. She sighed waiting for her squad to rest up and listened for any sign of the aliens. To which she'd dispatch no problems. Although, the turrets seemed quiet for now...

She rested from one foot to the other, leaning on her other hip. Her gun held at her side, but at the ready. She didn't like the fact the PMs were here either. She didn't trust people who sold out to the highest bidder. One of them was giving her the eye, she glared back at him. They couldn't believe a pretty face could be deadly? They would be wrong if they tried anything on her. She wasn't a soft touch.

Drake heard something outside. It hadn't activated the turrets, do whatever it was was either out of range... or able to avoid the infrared beams. He didn't like either option. He drew his pistol, flicking the weapon's laser sight on.

Varia noticed the PMs were staring intently at the security feed. She wanders over to peer at the screen which they were looking at. It was the Sergeant. She wondered what he was doing drawing his pistol and looking down the hallway at something. She felt worried for his safety. He had obviously heard something to alert him. She took out her radio.

"Sir, come in. This is Varia, out." Her radio goes to static. She hoped he had it turned on. Otherwise she'd have to go down there and be back up without his consent. She would use her initiative if she had to, even if it meant breaking rules or disobeying orders.

"Just heard some movement," the Sergeant said. "Hopefully it's just one of those oversized rats I heard talk about." Drake noted that the Private had used her first name. Something skittered in the darkness, and he caught a glimpse of a long tail. "Crest, make sure nobody's got a facehugger trying for oral up there."

Varia immediately turned to scan the area on high alert. She drew her gun and walked around the room. She heard a skittering along the floor and the glimpse of a tail. She leaned over from behind the desk to look over it. It went quiet...

She heard her heart beating faster and her increased breathing. Suddenly it leaped out from the side at her and she screamed out, narrowly dodging it as she dived out of the way and landed on the floor. It soared past her position and straight onto the face of one of the PMs. It coils its tail around his neck and squeezes tight, making him gasp for air. It shoves it membrane against his mouth and pumps an egg down his throat and then fell off his face, dead. Varia shot to her feet and looked down at the PM, clutching his throat and coughing.

She knew the inevitable happened. He needed to be cut open in order to remove it. And she was the only one who might be able to save him. She was a scientist, she knew anatomy and how to get an egg out of a human. She swallowed hard, did she want to save this stranger's life? She didn't hesitate and knelt by his side, grabbing his hand. "You're gonna be okay!" She then looked over to her comrade. "I need the med kit!" This showed much about her will to save others.

They hand her the medkit and she pops it open as the PM lay on the floor shaking. "I'm gonna die arent I? I got that thing in me dont I?" He panicked. She then grabbed his chin and pointed him at her face. "Don't." She had quite a commanding tone in her voice. This showed she was in some sort of authority back home.

She pulled his armoured chest pad off and ripped his shirt open. She grabbed a pen from her pocket. She always had a pen on her. This showed her she was like a business woman of some kind. That began to narrow it down for the Sergeant to finally figure out who she really was. And he would not be happy to find out that's for sure. The first sign he noticed was indeed using her first name on the radio, showing she had not had proper induction.

She marked on his mid chest where his esophagus would be. She had to be careful not to get too close to the trachea. She then took out what looked like a needle full of a clear liquid. She injected it into his chest. It was anesthetic. The man grunted in pain and then fell lax. She took out a laser scalpel from the kit and cut down the line. She had to do this quickly before he bled out too much. She donned a latex glove quickly before cutting. Then she pushed her hand inside and felt around for the egg. She grasped it and yanked it out. She threw the egg to the side. "Kill it!" She instructed one of them and one of them pulled out a gun and fired at it, it exploded everywhere in a screech.

Varia then took the staple gun and planted several down in a line of the open wound, repairing the cut. She leaned back panting and wiping her brow after the ordeal. The Wey-Yu PM was now safe.

A facehugger leapt at Drake from the darkness, but missed its mark when the human moved. However it was successful in knocking his gun away. He didn't have time to run for his assault rifle, so he drew his combat knife.

Varia helped the man to lean up from the floor. "Man I owe you one!" He patted his chest, knowing he would have been a gonner. She nodded. "It's fine. There are more of them than there are us. We need to stay alive." She pulled the glove off and put it in a bin, she picked up the medkit and put it on the table. She may need to use it again.

"Sarge is being attacked!" Her comrade explained as they watched on the cctv, then they ran out of the room to go help Drake.

The attack came from the left, but the Sergeant was ready. He hurled his knife, pinning the facehugger to the wall. The weapon had been treated to be acid-proof, something he knew would pay off. He moved away from the flailing creature spurting acid blood and grabbed his pistol.

Varia then came running to his assistance. "You okay Sarge?" She asked as she saw the facehugger planted to the wall with acid spiting everywhere with wide eyes His shot was so accurate and deadly. It kind of scared her but at the same time this man seemed to excite her. He was unpredictable. SHe sighed with relief as she came to a stop.