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CHAPTER 1: THE CITY
Date: February 13th, 2230
Locale: Frontier World, Lv-642
Rocky mountains dot the dusty flats of Lv-642, the colony of Hercules Wells hug between two large mountain ranges, the atmosphere processor and power plants were built miles away from the colony. The colonists were still wearing their rebreathers as the atmosphere’s air mixture was still too toxic to breathe safely. Massive dump trucks bearing the Weyland-Yutani Corporation logo leave the colony limits as they follow the dirt road to the quarries. Massive excavating machines drug into the planet surface, unearthing rare valuable minerals. The excavating arms dump their payload into dump trucks to be taken back to the refinery. On his dailey route, 59 year old engineer Jimbo Raymas was driving back to hercules wells when he spotted a plume of dust in the distance. He reaches for his communicator, “Big Dipper five-five, we have a plume of dust in region A-Six D-twelve enroute to investigate, over” “Little dipper Five-one, you are clear to leave. Evacavator #546 has gone offline, please investigate, over.” ''Roger, that Big Dipper” he clicks off his communicator as he drives his truck down the path to the offline excavator. The local star drops behind the horizon at starset as night falls. Jimbo activates his truck's headlights as he navigates the windy roads, the truck’s lights beamed on the excavator. The massive machine had collapsed into the ground, disrupted metallic dust still hangs in the air as Jimbo leaves his dump truck. He pulls out his flashlight to further investigate the accident. The excavator left a massive hole in the ground, Jimbo flashed his light into the hole, the light revealed a massive carved humanoid face. Jimbo was initially started by this, it resembled the carved statues he saw pictures of in history class, the great sphinx of egypt but that was on Earth. “Eh Big Dipper, I think we have a serious problem… over”
The colonial development contractors arrived at the scene with their massive cranes and large trucks. The cranes attached their magnets to the excavator as it pulled the massive machine out of the cave-in. The chasm was wider and more accessible for the contractors to send a team of surveyors and prospectors into the chasm. They beamed their flashlights on the head statue, “Is this King Tut?” joked one of the surveyors, “Nah man its yo momma” snarked another. “Okay people, let's take some samples and pictures'' the team leader Edward Smith, a 58 year old xenogeologist. The room with the stone-head was roughly the size of a classroom, large lumps dotted the floor. Stacy, a 22 year old xenobiologist stumbled over one of the lumps, “Oh my god” she shined her light on lumps revealing the deceased bodies of the ruins' former inhabitants. Covered in thick biomechanical armor, the bodies were about 8ft in length, far larger than any human being.
“Oh shit,” Jimbo shines his light on the dead alien, “Is it one of them?” he whispers to Edward. Edward hunches over the dead body, he forces open the creature’s face revealing a humanoid skull underneath, “No,” Jimbo looked at his friend, reminiscing their days being colonial marines. They endured many hardships together, they saw the worse the universe threw at them. Fighting insurrectionists and rival political powers paled in comparison to the hardships they endured during the Earth War. The xenomorph, a monstrous creature discovered on a frontier world called Archeon Lv-426. They are parasitic during their early stages and become more dangerous once they reach adulthood. Although they are not insectoid per se they share a lot of insect-like traits, including eusocial behavior, parasitoidism, tough carapace, and a rigid caste system. However the xenomorph weren’t the only aliens to be discovered, within the core worlds a species of stone-age sapient lifeforms called Artcurans were discovered on Arcturus and evidence of alien visitors have been discovered on Earth. Said visitors were also encountered during the Earth War, although there were two visitor species, Edward only encountered the one. Glowing eyes shrouded in bent light, firing blue-white balls of plasma. Its horrifying growls haunt Edward to this day and if it weren't for Jimbo, he most likely would have been dead. “Let’s keep moving, okay” Jimbo said to his friend.
The surveyors quickly explored the adjacent rooms of anything valuable, most of them were simple residential lodgings or storage rooms. Then they discovered a great staircase, the way up led to an open passage within the mountains but the way down led into a massive chasm containing an underground city that stretched for miles. The surveyor team traversed down the stairs and into the ancient city of the engineers. It was a graveyard, the former denizens were nothing but bone. Fossilized carapaces of an all too familiar creature were found alongside the engineer's remains. “Xenomorphs, big ones” said Jimbo as he passed his light over one. “You mean massive,” Stacy commented, “Look at these suckers, they could rival the queen in size” “I don’t think we should have come here” Edward flashed his light on a massive mural. Jimbo, Stacy and the others flashed their lights on the mural as well. Alien hieroglyphics surround a massive xenomorph hunching over two engineers with a facehugger hatching from an egg in the center of the mural.
“Everyone back to the surface, if the company were to find out about these ruins and what they contain…” “Hey what about our paychecks and our raise? I don’t know about you but I didn’t come all the way out here to turn back now,” said 31 year old surveyor Karen McCormic. “Yeah man, I have a family to support,” said one of the prospectors. “Hey where are yall going?” Jimbo demanded as the rest of the team went off exploring the rest of the city, Karen replied to him with a middle finger. “Ahh to hell with them” Stacy cursed at the deserters. “Jimbo rally them back here, we cannot let them endanger themselves or worse the colony” Edward ordered. “Yes sir” Jimbo walks towards the surveyors and prospectors, “Hey I know yall want to get paid but the risk here is too great, I know most of yall weren’t around during the Earth War but yall don’t understand how dangerous the xenomorphs are” “Hey were not stupid, we just want a look around that’s all, maybe find something akin to an alien toaster or is that too dangerous too” said one of the prospector, James Goodman “Wait where's Karen?” he asked. “Hey where did she go?”
Karen entered one of the engineer hovels to discover a disk-shaped device laying on a stone table. She moves her fingers across its smooth face unaware of the sticky green conductive material she displaced on the device. The nanites in the green solution remotely turns on the city generator. Lights flicker on across the ancient city. The refinery roars to life as the massive gizmos inside turn on. The last structure to turn on is the comms tower which extends from the city all the way to the mountain range, a signal was then released into the planet's atmosphere into space. Karen smiles as she wipes away the green solution with her handkerchief then stuffing the handkerchief in her shirt before leaving the hovel, “Karen what have you done?” Jimbo screamed furiously, “What the Company wanted,” she retorts as she drops the disk-device. “How the hell do we turn this thing off?” Jimbo asks as he grabs the disk-shaped device. “It must have broken when I used it,” Karen smugly replied.
“Get yourself back up to the surface, you're fired” Jimbo orders her. Karen shrugs as she and the others are taken back to the surface.
The signal travelled through many star systems until it reached the nearest Engineer outpost. A tall bald marble white humanoid sitting in a biomechanical chair stares at a star map intensely. The signal shines on the star map like a beacon of light, catching the space jockey’s attention. He traces the signal to Lv-642, the original Engineer Homeworld, Mala.
I CAN FINALLY AFFORD A MEGALON FIGURE NOW!!!
