Chapter 42 Three weeks...

_ _ _Captain Elliott Terra Pov_ _ _

(This isn't right...) I sighed as I looked out of the bridge window and down at the planet below.

Seeing my unease caused the man next to me, my second in command, to speak up. "Sir?"

"We should have evacuated them all the moment that we got here." I muttered with a shake of my head.

"We have our orders." He hummed in response while crossing his arms in front of himself. "Additionally it is their fault for allowing traitors to take root within their ranks in the first place."

"Aren't you being a bit too cold? They're still people after all." I asked while watching the bridge crew working away below me.

"Maybe, maybe, however just like us they have a job to do, it's up to them to complete it."

"You make it sound so simple..." I mused, not very satisfied with that response at all.

"Because it is."

Shaking my head I began to think about the current events that had led up to this whole mess. I had been ordered to pick up a rather unique asset from this sector, I just hadn't expected things to have gotten so out of control in the short time it took my ship to arrive.

I was rather furious when I received my new orders not to interfere, honestly I wished that I'd never shown them that damn video. Still, the fact that we haven't seen any more evidence of the xenos working with humans is concerning to me. Something about this whole situation just rubs me the wrong way, the problem is I have nothing to go on that could lead me to possible answers.

"At least tell me the containment room is prepared." I asked after a moment of silence between us.

"Indeed captain." He responded with his usual monotoned voice. "Everything is ready and can be put into use at a moments noticed."

"That's some good news at least, after all I'd rather not deal with an outbreak on my ship." I huffed before turning to leave.

"That is something we can both agree on."

_ _ _Lieutenant Ava Pov_ _ _

"Three weeks, three god damn fucking weeks!" These were the exact words that I heard when I walked into the command room.

"Screaming about it won't change anything." I hummed.

"I know..." Samuel just huffed, before slamming his fist on the table in front of himself. "Damn it all to hell!"

"You done?" I asked with a blank look.

"Yeah, yeah...what do you need Ava?"

Despite my relatively calm demeanor I was just as frustrated as he was with this current situation, however like I said just now "screaming about it won't change anything". Anyway, it had been three weeks since we were given that order and unfortunately we hadn't had much luck in completing the two tasks given to us.

"I just came to tell you, there has been another turf war." I sighed knowing that it wasn't something he'd want to hear. "Apparently some of the patrols nearly got caught up in it."

"Where?" Samuel hissed in frustration.

I didn't hesitate and just came out with it. "Around three thousand meters north of the base."

"Their damn war is getting closer by the day..." He responded while taking a seat and letting his shoulders sag somewhat.

"Seems like it." I mused before asking. "What do we do?"

"I don't know." He admitted with a tired expression on his face and thankfully there was no one else here to hear or see that, after all, subordinates shouldn't see their commanding officer in such a mentally drained state. "Those damn things are far smarter than we were expecting them to be."

The Colonel was definitely the backbone of our little group, however no one was infallible, everyone had a limit and the poor man had been under quite a lot of stress as of late. This fact was mostly because of the previously mentioned "turf wars" as some had started calling them, the two Xenomorph factions had been really going at each other over the past couple of days and it was only continuing to spiral out of control.

In the beginning this was seen as an overall good thing, while they were fighting each other we could complete our mission and finally get out of here, at least that's what we thought until we noticed two very important things. Firstly, the massive flocks of flying Xenomorphs that now patrolled the skies made it rather difficult for our dropships to go from place to place without getting harassed constantly. Secondly, was the fact that these battles were not only getting bigger by the day but were also revealing something very, very alarming.

The violet Xenomorphs were smart, like crazy smart when compared to their original counterparts. I'd even heard reports of them using simple yet effective tactics in battle, a fact that was quite shocking to say the least. This, of course, was made more alarming when you take into account that the normal variant we were so used to would just run forward into gun fire without a care at all for their own lives. Unfortunately this rather terrifying piece of information only served to peak the interest of the higher ups even more, something that was quickly proving to be a detriment to our continued existence.

"Hmmm?" Mercer mused and stood up when something suddenly caught his attention. "Come in."

Just at that moment the door to the room we were in slid open and a nervous member of staff walked in a bit awkwardly. "Errrr...sir..."

"What is it now?" The Colonel asked, the stress and exhaustion that he had shown just a moment ago vanishing in an instant.

"We just got some "good" news from one of our expeditions."

_ _ _3rd person Pov_ _ _

In an abandoned facility several figures could be seen moving quickly from place to place as they carried out their tasks. "Hurry up and get those boxes loaded up already!"

"Yes sir."

"This should be the last abandoned outpost, I still don't understand why exactly the higher ups insisted that we continue clearing out these damn places." One of the men, the leader of this little expedition, muttered to himself thoughtfully. "I guess that they just don't want to lose any of their lost equipment if at all possible."

Things were going relatively mundane for a while there, nothing eventful really happened at all as the men continued to spread out through the abandoned complex and load whatever they could into large boxes that they had prepared beforehand. Anything of use, from machinery to weapons were loaded into said boxes which were then lifted into the dropship one after the other. And that's how it all went for a while anyway, at least until...

"Team leader, sir." A member of their group, who just so happened to be a Synthetic, called out in alarm.

"What is it?" The man in question could only sigh as he turned to the Synthetic.

"I believe I have found something of great significance, something you may wish to see immediately."

"What are you yapping about?" He grumbled and walked over but quickly stopped in his tracks when he saw "it". "Oh..." He whispered with a grim tone at the sight before him.

Laying just out of view was a creature they all knew far too well at this point, it was one of those purple bugs. The Xenomorph in question seemed rather unconscious however, a possible result of the large cracks across its head. There was no acid blood leaking from it thankfully, however it was obvious that the damn thing more than likely had a concussion at the very least considering the possible damage to its cranium.

At this point several others had walked over to see what was going on, each of them was equally as alarmed when they saw the creature laying there. "Is it dead?"

"I don't think so..."

"Who cares if it's dead or not?!" The team leader hissed as he glanced around cautiously. "If there's one of these bloody things here then there has to be more of them somewhere close by."

"He's right, let's just get out of here."

"Please wait sir." The Synthetic suddenly hummed, catching their attention.

"What is it now?"

"We should capture it while we have the chance." The pale mechanical humanoid asked with a blank, emotionless look on its face. "A part of our objective is the capture and containment of one of these specimens, we currently have a golden opportunity to do just that. Think of it this way, the only way to leave this world is to complete our mission, is it not?"

Hearing this suggestion caused all those present to pause in thought. "That...that's a good point..."

And so they got to work, it took the group some time to not only fully restrain the creature in question but also to drag it all the way back to the ship. Thankfully for them however, the xeno remained unconscious through the whole process without any signs of awakening. Unfortunately because of the rush that they were in to leave three very important things were missed, three things that would have most definitely raised alarm if they had been noticed.

Firstly, in a sealed off room deep within the facility, there were several dozen corpses of both humans and animals, corpses that just so happened to have massive holes in their chests. Secondly, they had missed the strange group of dead hand-like creatures, one of which seemed bigger than the others and had webbing between its spider-like legs. Its body was hidden from sight with the others in a dark corner, close to the previously mentioned corpses.

And finally, they hadn't noticed that something was very off about one of their fellow companions. This team member hadn't reacted much to the unconscious abomination, he had in fact ignored the commotion to focus on continuing to move the large numbers of containers into the dropship with a single minded vigor. Yet...what was odd about his behaviour was his strange treatment towards one such container, a treatment that could only be described as "reverence" for whatever was inside.