A V P (ic)

[AmenRa]

In space no one can hear you scream...


....ENCRYPTED MESSAGE...
...ORIGIN: USS TARAWA......
...LOCATION: ARCHERON (LV-426) ORBIT
...SENDER: O'NEIL, H.

MESSAGE FOLLOWS....

We are currently in orbit around LV-426. Current status is operational.

Located Hadley's Hope colony site. Colony is a total loss. Thermonuclear detonation probable cause.

No contact with USS Sulaco. Ship is not in orbit and does not answer hails. Mother is unable to locate via sensors. Please list the following as MIA:

LT Gorman, W.
Bishop 341-B
GYSGT Apone, A.
CPL Hicks, D.
CPL Ferro, C.
CPL Dietrich, C.
PFC Hudson, W.
PFC Vasquez, J.
PFC Spunkmeyer, D.
PVT Drake, M.
PVT Frost, R.
PVT Crowe, T.
Ripley, E.

Mother received distress beacon signal from unknown location opposite side of LV-426. Proceeding to investigate.

....MESSAGE ENDS.

Hank O'Neil turned around in the swivel chair away from the comms console aboard Tarawa. He inclined his head to check the wall chronometer. Tarawa had been in orbit around LV-426 for a little more than an hour.

The comms screen flashed steadily with the distress beacon from the unknown location somewhere on the night side of the planet.

"Mother," O'Neil asked, "anything yet?"

"The unregistered location source of the distress beacon is listed as 'Site B' in records," came the synthesized female voice reply from the ship.

"Site B?"

"Affirmative."

"Anything further?"

"Negative."

Hank scowled. "There has to be more." He hated having to prompt the computer for every response. The damn thing ought to know to do some things on its own.

"Cross-reference with the Weyland database," he ordered.

"Site B is flagged 'priority access only' in Weyland-Yutani files."

O'Neil sighed. "Command priority access over-ride," he said.

Mother was silent for a moment. Then: "Site B lists as alternate atmospheric processor location."

Okay, Hank thought, that makes sense. No, wait it doesn't make sense. If it was an alternate colony site, why the fuck would it be listed only in Weyland-Yutani's database and not in general records?

"That's all?"

"Affirmative."

"Who entered the record?"

"Burke, Carter J."

Hank shrugged. He stood from the chair. "Mother, move the ship to geosychronous orbit over Site B."

"Initiating thruster burn," Mother responded.

O'Neil left the comms room and walked down a short stairway to the cryostasis room. The room was still dark, with the only light coming from his own sleep chamber that opened three hours ago. The rest of the team still lay sleeping in their tubes.

"Mother," he said, "wake them up."

 

[Virgininneed]

Mary stayed quiet and hidden, lucky to be of such a small size that she could find a good hiding spot. But it was only a matter of time before the aliens found her or she starved to death. She kept very still, locked inside a storage cabinet in one of the labs. Her supervisor had forced her inside right before the aliens came in. She was the only survivor in that lab.
Peeking out of the cracks, she saw corpses lying around everywhere. It was a massacre. She hoped someone would come and rescue them. She was running out of food and water, and she hadn't seen any humans alive for a week. She was frightened and alone, trapped in the room filled with people she knew dead

 

[AmenRa]

Tarawa

"So," Master Sergeant Torres asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "what do we know?"

Captain O'Neil stared blankly at the orange-ish colored square on one corner of his food tray. It was supposed to be cornbread. It damn sure didn't look like cornbread.

"What we know is pretty much shit," Hank answered. "Mother can't find any trace of Sulaco. And, Hadley's Hope is pretty much wiped off the planet."

"Great," Torres stated.

"Captain?" Sergeant Walker asked, "what exactly do you mean by 'wiped off the planet'?"

O'Neil noticed that Walker, too, had pushed the 'cornbread' to one side of his tray. This was breakfast for them, as they had only gotten out of hypersleep less than an hour ago. O'Neil had been up a few hours already, as the leader of the team he was always the first to rise. He had prepared a briefing based on the new information Mother had given when he awoke, but instead of gathering everyone together in a conference room he decided to talk to them while they ate.

"I mean it's gone," he replied. "Scans indicate high levels of radiation, and from what I can tell from video scans the site itself looks like a bomb went off. If I had to guess I'd say the atmosphere processor blew."

"Thermonuclear detonation," someone around the table stated.

"Fucking Weyland-Yutani is gonna be pissed," Walker offered.

"They can bill me," Torres said flatly.

O'Neil smirked. "Yeah, for real," he agreed. Then, to the entire team, "ya'll eat up and get geared up. We've got drop ship prep and intel to work on in the next few hours.

"And, Walker?"

"Sir?"

"Don't eat that cornbread."

Walker looked again at the thing on his tray like it was a monster. "Aye, aye, sir."