404 WORLDBREAKER PART THREE

My estimation was spot on as the ship finished the outside repairs to ensure the hull wasn't compromised, thanks to a brief micro-meteorite storm they had passed through during their last patrol. My contributions to the ship's budget had sped things up considerably and we boosted out of the Sol system at full engine speed.

I had stayed in my suite for the three days necessary, just so no one but the few people I already met, knew I was there. As soon as we were out of range of the local patrol ships that worked for the company, I was out of my room and started working on the minor repairs, just like I promised.

For the first few hours, I had a military guard that was unnecessary, since I had already read everything in their computers. I used him as a mule and had the young man carry a heavy tool box for me and had him wear a heavy backpack full of repair supplies. By the time he switched off for the next escort to take over, my ploy had worked and no one else volunteered to be my guard, because it wasn't the easy job it should have been.

When I carried the fake tools and backpack on my own after that, I saw a lot of respect from the soldiers and even some of the officers, because I kept them on my person for as long as I was working. It was almost funny how laughably easy it was to fix everything and make it better. I ran new wires, added redundancies and failsafes, and made the ship's systems as robust as I could.

After two weeks of this, I was quietly approached by the ship's engineer and asked to work in his department to work my magic for his equipment and maybe give the engines a look. He also definitely wanted to pick my brain about the programs I was adding to the computers to make them so much better.

This was also about the time I suspected the company's message would reach the terraforming colony and they would brief them on the supposed situation with the aliens. There was no way for me to know exactly how long it was going to take for the salvage crews to search an entire planet for a single ship, especially in the partial atmosphere they were working with.

I mean, I knew where the coordinates for the planet was and that was it. I had no clue how far it was from wherever it was they established the atmospheric condensers to where the derelict alien ship had crash-landed. I just hoped my estimations of how much time we had to arrive weren't too far off from reality.

In any case, I kept busy and finished the repairs, spent time working out in the gym on my days off, and ate meals with the troops and occasionally with the XO in her private room. Surprisingly, she didn't try to jump me or offered anything more than her company, which I thought was endearing.

We stopped at a few places for resupply, which were just numbered stations and not named, because they weren't important enough for that. One solar system had nothing but gas giants and moons that the station was harvesting for gases, mostly oxygen and hydrogen, and ships that came there stocked up on both because gases were easier to store than hundreds of tons of water.

There were a few skirmishes with pirates, which were really just mercenaries looking to make a quick buck at unsuspecting planets and stations. A few of the soldiers onboard the Daedalus were shot and were rushed to the medical bay for treatment. I made sure to be nearby to help and their nearly fatal injuries became grazes and near misses.

By the time we reached LV-426 a month later, I was considered the ship's good luck charm and a miracle worker. Their guns worked better than ever, their APC and dropship had become top of the line, and even the food processors made their daily slop taste great.

Needless to say, the terraforming colony's leadership was quite shocked that their distress call had been answered so soon and they were really grateful for the USCMC's desperately needed help. The comm officer wasn't stupid and didn't ask about the distress call and said the troops would be deployed as soon as possible.

I was invited to the meeting of all the senior officers on the ship, with members from both the flight crew and the Colonial Marines. No one objected to seeing me there and the captain and the XO gave me pointed looks as soon as the door closed and sealed. I wisely stayed quiet, because they didn't ask me anything.

“I guess now we know why this colony was added to our route at the last minute.” The captain said and no one questioned it. They all assumed the company had done so and it was much too late to complain about it. “Someone wanted us here before the situation became too out of hand.”

That I nodded in response to and everyone in the room saw it.

“What's the real sitrep?” The female marine lieutenant asked me. “The colony's report is a pile of crap.”

“With the captain's permission?” I asked and the man nodded. “This has been declared top secret by the company...”

“Heh, figures.” One of the marine corporals huffed.

“...and they grounded me for it to keep my mouth shut.” I said and looked across the table to the man that was the ship's psych evaluation technician. I had met him twice so far and he was horrified each time. He did sign off that I easily passed my examination both times, though.

“Shit, are we wrapped up in some kind of corporate scheme?” The lieutenant asked with a frown.

“It's worse than that.” I responded. “It's about asset acquisition.”

“Ah, shit!” She cursed and walked over to the door and back to the table. “You're serious.”

“They're sacrificing the colonists for a chance at a new biological weapon.” I said and brought up a copy of the information I stole from the Wayland-Yutani computers, which included video footage of the alien ship. “One that wiped out the crew of the Nostromo and I had to blow up the entire ship to get rid of it.”

“It?” A different corporal asked. “How many of them were there?”

“Just the one.” I said and everyone fell silent.

“Just... one.” The XO whispered.

“Yes, and the crew member that found the derelict said there were thousands of eggs inside the hold.” I told them and the women gasped and the men's faces showed anger. “Just one wiped out my crew. If this colony of 60 to 70 families becomes infected...”

“We'd be overrun in minutes.” The marine lieutenant said, her voice flat. She looked at the captain of the ship. “We don't have the heavy weapons onboard to handle an encounter like that.”

“Even a specialized squad would have a difficult time dealing with something like that.” The captain said and motioned to the report on the creatures, their combat capability, and the acid for blood. He looked over at me. “But, you knew that, didn't you?”

“Yes, sir. That's why I've already modified the M41A pulse rifles into heavy hitters.” I said and let my eyes roam over the soldiers. “Increased range, double ammo capacity, and a controllable fire rate. Tap the trigger for short bursts and hold for a steady stream. Each shot will damage and incapacitate while multiple shots are guaranteed to put them down. Just stay away from the blood splashes and you'll be fine.”

“The report says it melts through plate steel.” The XO said as she scrolled through it. “The basic armor we have isn't going to cut it.”

“It will for a short while. I've already treated everything with an acid resistant spray that will work just long enough to save you if you remove the item quickly. It won't stop your clothes and skin from melting, though.” I said and everyone nodded because of how corrosive it was. “If I can get my hands on a specimen, I should be able to make a spray that's fully resistant.”

“Then you're on the medical team we're sending to check on the victims, while the scout team handles the search for the handful of colonists that are still missing.” The captain said.

“You don't have to search for long, since they aren't actually missing.” I said and typed on the keyboard and brought up the homing beacons that each of the colonists were implanted with. “They were kidnapped and are right there under the nuclear reactor where it's oppressively warm to let the eggs gestate faster.”

A few people cursed when they saw the small cluster of life signs.

“It happened the same way on the Nostromo. The victim was fine for a while, then the egg finished absorbing the host's DNA and hatched, releasing the alien through the chest cavity.” I said and thought about showing a recreation, and changed my mind. I didn't want to traumatize them unnecessarily. “It's fast, agile, and lethal. You do not want to get into hand-to-hand with this thing, because you will lose, even if you win.”

All of the people nodded. They knew a no-win scenario when they saw one.

“It's stealth capabilities are phenomenal, barely making any sound when it moves in darkness and shadows. It can squeeze through impossibly small areas, even though it has a hard chitinous shell that shouldn't deform to let it do so.”

“Goddamn, no wonder the company wants this thing.” The female lieutenant whispered. “Hell, I could have used a few of them on our last mission.”

Several heads nodded and the captain and the XO exchanged looks. They knew the company would want a specimen if the aliens were that capable. It also explained why they put me under psych eval protocols to shut me up.

“Their capabilities are also a problem. That's a budding nest, with a queen preparing her brood eggs. It's also underneath a highly volatile nuclear reactor.” I said and my eyes swept over the marines again. “Can you guess what weapons you can't take into the facility because of their high penetration ammo?”

“Fuck!” The female lieutenant cursed angrily and did her pacing thing again. “Captain, there's no way I'm sending my men in there with only pistols and a couple of flamethrowers. They'll be slaughtered!”

The captain sighed. “What do you want me to do, Karen? Tell the colonists the Colonial Marines are too afraid of the threat to deploy?”

The lieutenant actually growled in the back of her throat and her anger flared as she thought about punching the man for saying something like that to her. For calling them cowards to their faces. I needed to calm her down fast, so I reached out and grabbed her left arm. She quickly turned to face me, her right arm already swinging, and her fist caught me right on the tip of my chin.

Since I was letting it happen anyway, I used the force of her punch to snap my head backwards, stumbled back into the wall, and bounced the back of my head on the bulkhead with a dull thud. I crumpled to the floor in a heap, as if I was knocked out, and there was dead silence in the room.

The captain coughed and cleared his throat. “I apologize, lieutenant. My comment was uncalled for.” He said and she didn't respond. “We're all under a lot of stress right now...”

The XO walked over to me as the captain continued the briefing and discussed the options they had. She knelt on one knee beside me and her skirt was hiked up and gave me a great view of her upper thighs, because I was watching the room with my X-Ray Vision.

“Why couldn't you have been more manly instead of a wimp?” She asked in a whisper as she checked my pulse and found it steady. “You throw your money around like a company exec, like it means nothing, and you can't even take a punch.”

Huh, so that's why she doesn't like me. I thought as her hand went to the back of my head, where I had started to grow a nice lump for her to find. My act of being nonchalant with my money had worked too well. “Uhhh.” I groaned and she took her hand back from my head and closed her legs, because she didn't want to give me a free show.

“Mr. Ripley? Are you all right?” The XO asked and prodded my shoulder.

“M'fine.” I mumbled. “Gimme... five more minutes, mom.”

A few of the people in the room laughed. The XO was not one of those people.

“Get up!” She hissed and stood herself as she crossed her arms.

I pretended to startle and opened my eyes to look up at her. “Huh? Wha... what's going on?”

“You fell and hit your head.” She said and pointedly didn't look at the lieutenant. “You're also missing the briefing.”

“Uh, right, right. Just a second.” I said and sat up, pretended to wince and rubbed the back of my head. “Ow.”

The look of disdain on the XO's face made me sad inside. I couldn't stop acting, though. The less they saw me as a threat, the less they would question the things I could do. I stood up and no one would meet my eyes, so my distraction had worked.

“What recommendations do you have, Ripley?” The captain said without looking at me.

I took a step and pretended to stumble a bit, then caught my hand on the table and steadied myself. “If it was me...” I said and my other hand typed on the keyboard. “...I'd switch everyone's loadout with shotguns. High penetration up close... almost none at a distance.”

“The highest range of accuracy for them is 20 feet.” The female lieutenant said and avoided looking at me directly.

“Yes, a standard hallway's walls will only have scorch marks of shot at at an angle.” I said and showed the schematics for the colony and for the maintenance tunnels under the reactor. “I suggest gassing the place first with sleep agents, using the seismic monitors the colonists use to track movement, and then go in and sweep the place.”

The marines nodded at the solid plan.

“What about the queen you mentioned?” One of the corporals asked.

“If she's not delirious from the sleep gas, use flamethrowers on her nest of eggs. She'll be so pissed off that she'll follow you anywhere.” I told them and all of them turned to stare at me, conveniently forgetting why they avoided looking at me in the first place. “Once she's out from under the danger zone, grenades and pulse rifle fire will end her.”

The captain nodded. “Lieutenant, I want you to hold a full squad with M41A pulse rifles and grenades at the entrance to the facility and lead the rest of your people inside for a clean and sweep operation. We need this done soonest.”

“Yes, sir.” The female lieutenant said and saluted. She made a hand sign and the marines cleared out of the room and left the flight crew officers there.

“Ripley, head down to the medical bay with Jones. You'll shuttle down to the surface to work on the colonists to get me that spray.” The captain ordered.

“Yessir.” I said and saluted. I walked over to Jones, the chief medical officer, and the man nodded to me and we left the room.

We gathered two other people, left one person for the ship's medical needs in the bay, and went to the hangar. The shuttle was much different than the dropship, so the ride down to the planet's surface wasn't nearly as rough as what the marines were going to go through.

The ride wasn't peaceful, either. Lots of yelling and screaming, not from me of course, as the shuttle dropped through the rough atmosphere. It was only a little turbulence, barely buffeted the ship enough to rock it slightly, and the woman medic seemed to think the entire shuttle was going to fly apart at any moment.

Her counterpart sighed and slipped an injector into her neck and the woman stopped screaming immediately. A peaceful look came over her face and neither Jones nor I said anything about it. If a little application of anaesthetic worked to calm her down, we were all for it. The shuttle's copilot flashed a quick thumbs-up to the man, too.

We landed at the designated landing pad and one of the terraforming administrators was there. He greeted us as if nothing was wrong and led us inside the facility. He didn't talk much about what was going on, not even to ask if the marines were on their way to help.

Their medical bay was quite large and there were three people with facehuggers on them. The three of them were security personnel from the terraforming operation that had been sent to investigate where Newt's family found the alien ship. The kidnapped people were the rest of their squad and it didn't take much thinking to realize Newt's dad was dead.

A search in the database let me know her mother was alive and in quarantine, as were Newt and her brother. They did preliminary scans and didn't find anything on them or in them. They were just the only ones alive that had been around the full size alien that used to be Newt's dad and the base personnel didn't want to take any chances.

Since both I and the medical staff I brought with me, had already been briefed on what the aliens and the facehuggers could do, we safely secured the end of the thing's tail around the first victim. A touch of mine removing the creature's sense of touch, so it wouldn't know what we were doing.

Jones unwrapped the tail and held it firmly, so it wouldn't wrap back around the victim's neck again. The other two technicians very carefully pried each of the facehugger's fingers from around the man's head without disturbing the creature.

I took the lead and put on large safety gloves, heavily reinforced ones like a space suit would use, and grabbed the main body. “On three.” I said and looked at the base's lead medic. “Ready the capture tube.”

The chief medical officer did so and the two technicians nodded, ready to release their own holds. Jones nodded as well, because he had to keep hold of the tail, since it would flick around the most.

“One, two... three!” I said and yanked hard.

With a sloppy sound, the large proboscis-lite tube was pulled from the victim's throat. He involuntarily threw up, making a huge mess, and covered his own face and part of the table in stomach acid. Jones and I fought the creature's thrashing and the base's medical officer shoved the containment tube at us. We threw the creature inside and he slammed the thing closed.

After a moment, we all sighed and let out a soft chuckle.

The medical officer handed the tube to a medical technician to hook up to the stasis module they had set up before. “Only two more to go, gentlemen and lady.”

The woman softly cursed under her breath, then she sighed and nodded. We did the other two in the same manner, surprising the locals with how easy we handled them, and now all three facehuggers were alive and secured.

Now we just had to examine the victims to see if any of them already had eggs implanted inside of them. If they did, then the medical teams and I had more work to do today to put them on the road to recovery. I would also use Panacea's power to have their bodies reject the foreign substances, just in case.