~Searcher~

Chapter 1 - Acheron​

Wierzbowski… Spunkmeyer… Dietrich… Ferro… Frost… Crowe… Drake… Vasquez… Hudson… Apone… They were all dead. And so was Gorman, the rookie Lieutenant. No one ever figured out what happened to the Company man, Carter Burke, but there was no likely chance that he had made it out of Hadley's Hope alive. Even if he had gotten out of the colony compound without running into any of the aliens, he wouldn't have made it far enough to avoid the blast from the exploding atmosphere processor.

No one cared whether Burke had lived or died anyway. No one…

Corporal Dwayne Hicks, the last one left alive of the elite US Colonial Marine team, sat on the metal floor, his back against the metal wall, smoking a cigarette. A white bandage covered the left side of his face and another bandage protected the injury to his chest and left shoulder. He recalled when he had blown the shit out of that last alien. He and Ripley had just gotten into the lift. The door hesitated to close, even after he had punched the button hard several times. Just as the door started to close, the alien launched itself toward them, preventing the door from closing any further. Pure reflex had caused Hicks to raise his shotgun and fire it at the creature. Its head blew open and its acid blood sprayed him, eating through his armor and burning his flesh.

And then Ripley went after the kid. He couldn't figure out how Ripley had held it together down there while he had lost two thirds of his entire team in less than fifteen minutes. She managed to locate Newt and rescued her, while being pursued by what Ripley later described to him as the mother of all aliens. The alien queen bitch responsible for laying all the eggs in the colony's atmosphere processor.

Things had started looking good once Bishop had gotten the second dropship down from the Sulaco and they were headed off, just as the atmosphere processor blew. Unfortunately the concussion from the blast literally shook the dropship, damaging it. Bishop was forced to land it back on the planet. He had glided the dropship down, trying to get as close to one of the other atmosphere processors as possible.

And this is where they were now. In the dropship with nowhere else to go. The good news was that Bishop patched to the Sulaco and a distress call had been sent. The bad news was that they had to lay low until the rescue team arrived. The worse news was that there were aliens crawling all over the place. Apparently the colonists at this particular atmosphere processor had also been exposed. Hicks and Ripley had managed to kill off a few that had wandered too close to the dropship, and every once in a while they would make their presence known again.

It was quiet for the moment and Hicks looked down at the sleeping child curled up on the floor against him, her head resting on his lap. Every once in a while Newt squirmed and whined in her sleep and Hicks found himself reaching down to caress her head. Then she became quiet again. It was an awkward moment for him, not being used to this. Kids…this wasn't his cup of tea…this was for like…married people or something.

The drugs were starting to wear off and he was feeling that god-awful overwhelming pain again. He looked up and saw Ripley talking to Bishop in hushed tones. Then he followed Bishop with his uncovered eye as the android walked up to him. He knew the look and knew that Bishop was about to tell him something he wasn't going to like. When the android didn't say anything, Hicks turned his eye away. "Spill it, Bishop. What is it?"

"We only have enough food and water to last one more day. That doesn't even include my portion."

"Shit…"

"Ripley said she would go out to the processor and see if she could find something."

Hicks looked back up again and then turned to Ripley as she walked up to stand beside Bishop. "No way…you're not going."

"I did it before, Hicks," she said. "I can do it again."

It didn't escape Hicks that she had already reverted to last names, just like before. She wasn't calling him Dwayne anymore. He moved Newt off of him so he could get up. She stirred and came awake. "I'm going," he said with conviction.

Ripley frowned and looked at him, putting her hands on her hips. "Not likely. Look at you."

Hicks yanked off the bandage from over his left eye. He couldn't see shit from it. Everything was blurred. "You have to stay here with the kid. She needs you more than she needs me." He walked over to the weapons rack and removed a pulse rifle. He grabbed three extra clips and shoved them into the utility pockets of his military fatigues.

Bishop came up behind him. "Everyone seems to forget that I'm even here. I can go, you know. They might not bother me."

"Bishop, you have to stay here in case there's any communication from the rescue team. You're the only one who can guide them to our location. Besides, we haven't seen anymore bugs in the last two days. Maybe we got them all." He grabbed a cloth satchel and slung it over his shoulder.

"Hicks, please be careful," said Ripley. "Don't take any chances. We really need you."

Hicks turned to Ripley. Newt had gotten up on her feet and was now hugging Ripley's waist. He stared into the kid's blue eyes. She stared back wide-eyed and terrified. Then he looked back up at Ripley. "I'll be back real soon."

Bishop hit the button to lower the side ramp. Hicks jumped off before it touched the ground. Then he turned to watch the small ramp go back up.

The wind was howling loudly and it was pouring rain, as usual. It hadn't stopped raining ever since they had first arrived on Acheron. He crouched down and scanned the immediate area. There was no movement anywhere except some debris rolling around, being pushed by the winds. He stood up and started walking forward in the direction of the atmosphere processor, which was only about three hundred yards ahead.

The crumpled and mutilated bodies of dead aliens were strewn around. Even though Hicks knew they were dead, the mere sight of them made chills shoot up his spine. They were hideous creatures out of one's worst nightmare. When Ripley had first described the creatures to him and the rest of the team, everyone had misjudged the seriousness of what Ripley had told them. They had been overconfident and had gotten their asses kicked. It was a harsh reality check and Hicks wasn't about to underestimate them again…ever…

Two hundred yards to go…

Hicks glanced left and right and then turned completely around in a circle, checking to make sure nothing was sneaking up behind him. More alien bodies blocked his path and he moved around them, giving them lots of room. Again, they were dead, but he didn't even want to come within five feet of them. He turned completely around again, his pulse rifle held up and ready.

One hundred yards to go…

Hicks glanced back toward the grounded dropship and then turned back around to the compound as he approached the doors. The double doors were lying partially open, having been nearly ripped from their hinges. He switched on his flashlight and panned the beam around the interior before entering. The coast was clear. He pushed one of the doors aside and it made a loud creaking sound and then it fell with an even louder metallic crash. Hicks froze and waited, watching with his right eye because his left eye couldn't focus.

Nothing came charging down the corridor. Hicks began to have high hopes that maybe they had indeed exterminated the bugs from this facility. He had no idea how many colonists were at this particular station. But the station was smaller than Hadley's Hope, so maybe there hadn't been as many victims to spawn the bugs.

He stepped through the doorway and walked silently down the corridor. The first door on the left revealed a small communications office. One glance told Hicks that none of the equipment was usable. It had been shot up and some of it fried by alien blood.

The next room was another office. So were three other rooms that he just passed without inspecting. Hicks went deeper into the compound and came across what looked like the mess hall. After a quick glance around, he found the food and drink dispensers. He hit the drink dispenser first, punching repeatedly for water bottles. The bottles flew out of the shelf and scattered all over the floor. He chased after them and stuffed them into the cloth sack he had slung over his shoulder. There were only eight bottles. The machine had stopped spitting them out.

Hicks moved to the food dispenser and paused to let the issue sink in. How was he going to collect food that was already processed and cooked? He tried to read the labels, but some of them were already faded from the constant dripping of water coming from holes in the ceiling. So he decided to just push buttons and see what he got. Beef stew, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, sausage links, scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried chicken, salisbury steak, mushrooms, onion rings, french fries and cornbread.

The cornbread reminded him of Spunkmeyer… 'It's good for you, boy. Eat it.'

Hicks grabbed trays and piled food on them. He didn't care what ended up mixed together. It was all food. Then he covered the trays with other trays and using ducktape that he had in his pocket, he wrapped it around the trays so they stayed together. He threw the seven trays he had made up into the sack. That was it. He was out of there, heading back the way he came.

Just as he reached the unhinged doors leading to the outside, he heard something. He turned slightly, his pulse rifle up. As he slowly and quietly lowered his bag of treasures to the floor, he turned completely around to face the corridor. The sound was coming from one of the offices. It almost sounded like a whimper, someone crying. He slowly crept forward, moving toward the sound.

When he entered the office, he slowly moved around to the other side of the desk. Lying on the floor, on its side was a dog. A golden retriever. Hicks crouched down and the dog whimpered, lifting its head to lick his hand. In a corner, about four feet away was a puppy. It was cowering behind some boxes. Hicks turned back to the dog in front of him, seeing the marks on its face, knowing that it had been in contact with a facehugger. The dog whimpered and Hicks ran his hand over its head, scratching behind its ear. He needed to do something. The poor thing was going to soon suffer through having a creature burst from its chest and then there would be another alien running loose.

He made an adjustment on his pulse rifle and placed the muzzle against the dog's head. He had never killed a dog before and bile rose to his throat. But it had to be done. He had to put it out of its misery. "Sorry, girl." He pulled the trigger. A single shot went into the dog's head and it died instantly. He wanted to puke and quickly turned away, focusing his attention on the puppy. "Hey, come on, little guy…com'ere."

The puppy whimpered, wanted to come out, but hesitated. Hicks extended his hand, knowing that it smelled like food after having grabbed it from the machines in the mess hall. Finally the puppy edged out from behind the boxes and came up to his hand, feverishly licking his fingers. Hicks picked up the puppy and carried him out of the office.

Then there was another sound. An all too familiar sound. He reached the doors and bent to pick up his sack. He no sooner stepped out when two aliens came bounding up the corridor toward him.

Hicks turned and ran backward, firing his pulse rifle at them. The aliens screeched and even as they fell, two others burst through the doors. Hicks turned and ran…then turned back around, firing again. More aliens poured out of the facility. Where the hell were they coming from? How could there be so many more of them?

Ripley saw Hicks coming. She saw the three aliens hot on his heels. "Bishop, open the hatch!" She ran in back and grabbed a pulse rifle, slamming in the clip quickly and then running to the hatch.

Hicks continued to run. His pulse rifle was out of ammo. Holding the rifle in one hand, the sack of goodies and the puppy in the other, he didn't have any hands left to load a new clip. And even if he did, by the time he loaded it, the aliens would be on him. He saw the hatch coming down. He saw Ripley step out with a pulse rifle in her hands.

"Hicks, get down!" she yelled.

Hicks dove for the ground and Ripley let loose over his head. He looked back and they were still coming. He tossed his rifle away and used three limbs to crawl his way forward, scrambling to get to the hatch.

Ripley continued to fire until there were no more aliens coming out of the compound. She waited with her pulse rifle ready until Hicks picked himself up off the ground.

Hicks moved toward the hatch and slid passed Ripley. "Thanks."

Inside the dropship, Hicks handed Bishop the sack. "Bottled water and whatever I could get out of the food dispensers. It's not pretty, but it's edible." Then he turned toward Newt, who was sitting on the floor, her legs curled up and her arms wrapped around her knees. He walked over to her and came down on one knee as he put the golden retriever puppy in her lap. The kid smiled as she hugged the puppy and the sight of her smile made his heart gush. Both Bishop and Ripley came up to stand beside him as he got up.

"Where'd that come from?" asked Ripley.

"I found it in one of the offices. The mother's dead."

"You do realize that we now have another mouth to feed," said Bishop in an unemotional manner.

Hicks turned to Bishop. The android was right. He hadn't thought about that. All he had thought about was wanting to bring a smile to the kid's face. Ripley put her hand on his shoulder. She didn't have to say anything. He knew she thought he had done a good thing.

"Is it a girl or a boy puppy?" asked Newt.

Hicks crouched down in front of her again and picked up the puppy. "Let's see…" He pretended to be looking at the puppy's face, but he glanced down below its belly. "It's a boy puppy."

"What should I call him?" she asked Hicks.

"I don't know. He was a brave little puppy, though. You should give him a brave name." Hicks stood up and started to move away.

"How about Cujo?" suggested Bishop.

Hicks gave Bishop a frown as he walked away.

Bishop shrugged. "It was just a joke."

"Leave the jokes for your nightclub act, Bishop," Hicks tossed over his shoulder. He walked toward the front of the dropship and sat down in the pilot's chair. His cigarettes were lying on the console. He reached for one and lit it, then stared out the window at the compound. How many more aliens lurked inside, waiting for them to make a wrong move? He had nearly lost the battle out there. If it hadn't been for Ripley.

Then Hicks saw movement among the alien bodies. One of them was still alive. It turned to look at the dropship, probably looking right at him and opened its mouth in what Hicks imagined to be an angry hiss. "Yeah, fuck you, too." He watched as the creature turned and crawled back into the compound.

Newt came up and sat down in the seat behind him. She held the puppy in her arms. "Did you ever have a dog?"

"No, I never had any pets."

"If you ever had a dog, what would you name him?"

Hicks knew what she was trying to do. She wanted him to name the puppy for her. He ran a few names through his mind, names he had heard before. A friend of his back in fifth grade had a dog. "Hm, if I had a dog, I think I'd name him…Travis."

"Can I call him Travis?"

Hicks smiled at the kid. "Sure. He looks like a Travis, don't you think?"

Newt smiled and nodded her head, hugging the puppy.

"Go take him in back and see if he'll eat something. He must be pretty hungry." Hicks watched as the kid hopped off the seat and carried the puppy in back. He turned back to look out the window, dragging on his cigarette. He was glad he had made somebody smile.

Six days later, the rescue team finally arrived and picked them up. They were taken to the Sulaco and left on their own.

The Sulaco was soon homeward bound, controlled by the navigation system of the ship's computer, which had been programmed by Bishop. It's three human passengers, one dog and one android slept peacefully in cryo-chambers, oblivious to the warping of time as the ship moved through hyperspace.

Gateway, the space station above the Earth, received the Sulaco's signal two days before its intended arrival and they made preparations to shuttle to it when it finally positioned itself in Earth's orbit.

 

Chapter 2 – Gateway Station​

Hicks was restless. He hated being confined in this sterile white room, in this sterile white bed. It made him think too much and his thoughts always went there. To that planet. Always seeing his team, his friends, being attacked in his mind's eye. Always seeing that alien splatter when he shot the hell out of it and its acid blood spraying him, eating through his chest armor.

Hicks closed his eyes at the memory of seeing the dead colonists hanging from the walls, held in place by secreted alien resin, their chest cavities blown open by the creatures that had burst through. He prayed those of his team that had gotten captured, and not instantly killed, didn't have to go through that kind of death, that the colony's atmosphere processor had exploded before that, sparing them the agony.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door chime. "Yeah, come in." When the door slid open, he was surprised to see two people he didn't think he'd ever see again.

Ripley and Newt stepped in. "Hey there," said Ripley as she approached the side of Hicks' bed. "How're you feeling?"

"I dunno. How do I look?" he asked.

"Not too bad. For someone who's gone through hell and back. How's your eye?"

"It's okay. They fixed it. I have to put these god-awful drops in it every four hours. I swear I can taste the stuff when it goes in my eye."

"But we made it out alive."

Hicks nodded his head and looked down.

"Hicks, I never got a chance to say this, but I'm sorry about your team."

"Yeah, so am I," he said slowly, still looking down.

"What're you going to do when you get out of here?" asked Ripley, trying to lighten the somber mood in the room.

He looked back up at her. "I've been promoted to Sergeant. I get my own team."

"Congratulations," said Ripley with a smile. She was unsure if he was happy about the promotion or not. "I'm glad for you."

"So what're you going to be doing?" he wanted to know.

"I'm going home. Maybe start growing vegetables."

When she laughed, Hicks realized she was joking. He couldn't picture her being a farmer. Newt had been standing slightly behind Ripley the whole time and she tugged on Ripley's shirt several times.

"Oh, Newt wanted to say hello." Ripley lifted her up to sit on the side of the bed.

"Hey, kid," said Hicks as Newt turned to face him, her blue eyes wide and bewildered. He smiled at her and she reluctantly returned it. "How's Travis?"

"He's okay. They wouldn't let me bring him in here," she said sadly. Then she held her hand open.

Hicks looked down at a silver chain with a pendant on it. The pendant was also made of silver and was shaped like a small lizard. "What's this?"

"It's my good luck charm. It's a newt, just like me. You can have it so you can have good luck, too."

Hicks looked up at her, deeply into her blue eyes. "I can't take your good luck charm, kid. It came in handy for you. You should keep it."

"But I want you to have it."

Hicks glanced up at Ripley, who raised her eyebrows and motioned for him to take it. "Okay. I'll take it." He took the chain and slipped it over his head so the pendant rested on his bandaged chest. "Thanks. I'll wear it all the time."

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I promise." The kid smiled at him and reached over to give him a hug. He hugged her back, even though his shoulder was on fire from the movement. Then she pulled away and hopped off the bed. Hicks had a feeling that he wasn't going to see her again. He didn't think he was ever going to see Ripley either. He was going to miss seeing them both. But the memories were painful and seeing them would only bring back the memories, the bad ones, at least.

Ripley moved closer and bent down to kiss him on the cheek. "Take care of yourself, Dwayne."

"Yeah, Ellen, you too."

Ripley held her hand out to the girl. "Let's go Newt. We have a shuttle to catch."

Newt turned back to Hicks and waved with a smile. "Bye."

"Bye," he said, holding his hand up in response.

After they left and the door slid closed, Hicks lifted the charm hanging on the end of the chain and inspected it curiously. "Good luck charm, huh? We'll see about that."

 

Chapter 3 - Thirteen Years Later​

The wind was howling on the surface of the desolate planet known as LS-119, although it was referred to as Deadsville lately, only because there was nothing living on it at the moment, other than a few hives here and there. The planet had been evacuated several months ago after the first bug sightings. The infestation needed to be eliminated before the planet's residents could return.

Over the sound of the wind was the sound of a dropship. It circled over a tall mound of rocks about a hundred yards away from an abandoned town.

The pilot of the dropship looked down from the side window. "Holding steady at 50 feet."

A female voice responded to her. "Almost there. Hold tight." In the background was the sound of gunfire and screeching.

Beneath the rock mound, inside a cave, four figures, dressed in heavy armor and helmets and carrying state of the art lethal weaponry, swept the tight corridor with gunfire. For every bug they killed, another took its place. But the small squad continued to advance, carefully stepping over the dead creatures, avoiding the pools of acid blood.

The alien drones began to retreat, heading back to protect their queen. They blocked the entrance to the nest, but it didn't discourage the squad of humans. They sprayed the drones with fire, burning the creatures alive. Once the squad was satisfied that their path was now unhindered, they advanced, pushing aside the charred remains of the drones.

The leader of the squad moved ahead of the others, stepping over a dead drone, or at least what was thought to be dead. The drone revived and grabbed the leader's ankle.

The leader unsheathed a machete and cleanly sliced the creature's arm at the elbow. As the acid blood ate into the steel of the machete, it was tossed aside by the leader, who then bent to remove the creature's lifeless hand, still clinging to the leader's ankle.

The alien queen, suspended in the air over her gigantic egg sack, screeched in fury at the death of her drones. Her arms flailed angrily at the approaching human. The other humans remained behind, but held their weapons up in preparation.

The leader moved closer to the queen and after removing the helmet, a torrent of blonde hair cascaded down, falling passed her shoulders. She smiled in victory at the queen. "And so it ends for you today." She lifted her pulse rifle and sprayed fifty rounds into the queen's face.

The bullets ripped the queen's head to shreds. The queen haphazardly fell from her suspended net and crushed a dozen of her own eggs beneath her. The other three humans moved forward and began to spray the remaining eggs with fire, burning everything in the alien chamber.

The pilot glanced down toward the rock mound again as she continued to circle the dropship. "How's it going down there?"

The female voice returned. "It's clean. They're all dead. We're ready for evac."

The pilot smiled. "Another one bites the dust. I'm coming down."

The dropship landed several yards away from the mound. The four figures stepped out of a hole in the mound and approached the drop ship. They clambered up the ramp and the dropship immediately lifted off.

Orbiting the lifeless planet was a submarine-shaped ship, decked out in battle guns and antenna. The Judgement looked battered and worn on the outside, but the inside was even worse. It was rusted and needed a major cleaning. None of its crew seemed to mind.

The dropship lifted into its cradle beneath the belly of the Judgement and came to its final resting place in the docking bay. When the ramp lowered, the four figures and the pilot exited. They made their way out of the bay through a door that noisily slid open upon their approach.

The woman was the leader of the squad of alien fighters. She was tall, a good head taller than some of her counterparts. Most men were intimidated by her height and she used it to her full advantage. But then again, she intimidated most men in general. By her sultry looks, by her piercing pale blue eyes, by her lean and muscular physique, by her chosen profession: bug hunter.

She made her way down the main corridor, continuing on as the rest of her crew turned down various other corridors. Exhaustion was beginning to take its toll on her. When was the last time she had slept? Thirty-six hours ago? Which was about seventeen hives ago. Seventeen hives and seventeen queens on that planet. A more than typical infestation. The same question haunted her mind over and over again. How did these things get from one planet to another?

Before she had a chance to reach her quarters, she heard running footsteps behind her.

"Lieutenant, Lieutenant…Gateway wants to know the situation on LS-119. They want to know when the residents can return to their homes."

She turned around to face Roth, her communications officer. "I told Packer to relay the message. Can't anybody do anything right on this ship?"

"Sorry, Lieutenant, but Mr Packer has already retired and…"

"Don't say it, Roth, don't say that you didn't want to disturb him because you don't seem to have a problem disturbing me. Now get over to his quarters and get the report from him. You got that?"

"Yes, Lieutenant."

She sighed heavily and waited until Roth dejectedly walked away before she turned toward the door to her quarters. When she stepped closer, the door slid open. She began removing her armor as she walked inside, leaving it wherever she let it drop, her eyes falling on her prized possession.

Like a ritual, she walked up to the gargantuan creature standing in the corner of her large chamber and touched its chin. The creature was dead, of course. She would never have allowed a living one on her ship. This was her trophy. Her very first queen kill. To have it so close to her made her fear the deadly creatures less.

The alien queen was a perfect specimen. Her head was lowered and her mouth was forever frozen open, revealing her jagged, razor-sharp teeth. If she had been alive, anyone this close to her would have been dead or been a host for her young.

The door chirped and the Lieutenant sat down in a chair in front of the queen. "Come in." The door slid open and Bishop entered quietly. She turned to look at him. "I hope you have good news, Bishop. I'm in the mood for some."

"Well, it's good news and bad news." Bishop walked up to her, glancing up at the immobile queen. Even though he was an android, he still got creeped out looking at the alien queen, always remembering how one of them had literally ripped his arms out during one of his missions with the Lieutenant.

"Give me the good news first," she said.

"I found him."

"And the bad news?"

"He doesn't want to be found."

"Can you elaborate on that?" she asked impatiently with a sigh. "Whatta you mean he doesn't want to be found?"

Bishop shrugged and quietly continued. "He's using an assumed name, Elliot Norris."

She smiled to herself, finally turning away from the queen. "Elliot?"

"I checked his file. It's his father's name. And Norris was his mother's maiden name. So it wasn't that difficult to find him."

"And you know where he is right now?"

"Yes. My source says he's in this vicinity."

"Change course. We're going."

"I'll inform the helm." Bishop headed for the door.

"And bring me his file." She got up and started to walk toward the bathroom and a much-needed shower.

"Rebecca…"

Rebecca "Newt" Jorden paused at the entrance and turned back to Bishop. He was the only one she tolerated calling her that. No one else dared call her by her given name for fear of getting a boot shoved down their throat and not in a very nice manner either. But Bishop had been like a father to her. He had always been there while she had been growing up, even when she had had that blowout with Ripley over her wanting to join the Colonial Marines. Bishop had gone with her. Ripley had wanted Newt to remain on Earth, get a good education and work in some office, doing some high-priced fancy desk job. She wanted no part of it. She needed to be out there, fighting her demons. Doing this job made her nightmares almost bearable. It gave her a sense of purpose and gratification to know that she had prevented future human deaths by disposing of any alien hives that were reported to her.

"He's not who you think he is."

Newt looked up at him, her thoughts drifting back to the present. "Why do you say that?"

"He's second on the most wanted list. He appears to take pleasure in ridding the universe of those involved in criminal activities, or at least those that rub him the wrong way."

She shrugged. "So? What's wrong with that?"

"Well, vigilantism is still against the law in most parts of the populated universe."

Newt shrugged again. "His chosen profession means nothing to me."

"He's unreliable."

"I've known better people that weren't very reliable."

"And he's also quite unstable."

"So am I," she said dryly as she walked into the bathroom.

 

Chapter 4 - Somewhere on Aquifer​

Aquifer was known as the riff raff capital of the Omega system. It was home to mercenaries, hoodlums, crime lords and anyone involved in anything illegal. It was also the favorite hangout of the Centurions, a species that resembled humans in most ways, except for their eyes and their teeth.

The Centurions and mankind had run into each other over a decade ago. Although a union was established between the two races after a five-year feud, there was still suspicion about the Centurions and they weren't very trust-worthy.

This was the reason Corporal Charles Packer refused to allow his Lieutenant to go without the squad.

"I'm going alone, Packer," Newt stated firmly as she checked the clips on two pulse guns.

"This is no place for a decent woman," he argued.

"Oh spare me the lecture, Packer. You know I can take care of myself."

"Why are you risking your life for this nobody anyway?"

"Because we need him."

"We need him? What the hell do we need a mercenary for?"

Newt strapped the holsters with the pulse guns to each of her thighs. She ignored his question. "I gotta go."

Packer tagged along behind her as she made her way down the dropship ramp. When he continued to walk with her, Newt stopped abruptly and turned to him, grabbing the front of his uniform. He saw the determined look in her steely blue eyes and shivered.

"I won't say it again, Packer. I'm going alone." She released him roughly.

Packer threw up his arms and stepped back. "Fine. You're the boss."

As Newt walked down the dirt street, she glanced left and right from the corners of her eyes, feeling the stares of those standing around the buildings. The sun was starting to go down on the port city and the wind kicked up the dirt, blowing her cape behind her wildly. Somewhere to her left, several shots were fired and a scream followed. No one seemed to care.

The neon sign above the entrance read "The Louvre". This was the place Bishop had told her about. Newt inspected the other neon images of women with exaggerated assets. This place was obviously nothing like the museum in Paris, back on Earth. She wondered who had thought of that name to call such a place.

A drunk staggered out of the entrance and almost collided into her. Upon seeing her, he gave her a toothy grin, or at least whatever was left of his decayed teeth. She tilted her head at him impatiently when he leered and wiggled his tongue at her in a suggestive manner. Then she unsheathed a ten-inch blade from her belt, holding it up just as suggestively.

"Beat it, asshole before I chop that tongue off and feed it to my man-eating tiger."

The drunk thought better and quickly staggered away. Newt re-sheathed her knife and looked back up at the sign. Maybe Packer had been right. This was no place for a woman, or at least not one who didn't sell her assets to the crap on this planet. She realized that every man in the place would want to sample what she had. Before she changed her mind, Newt pushed the door open and stepped in.

The lounge was crowded. Every table and chair was taken. It was dark, except for the center of the room where brightly colored lights flashed on a dance floor. Five scantily clad women were dancing in unison at the center. They danced to the beat of loud, garish rock music and all eyes were on them.

Until Newt walked in...

She eyed the staring men in the lounge. Her hands were at her sides, her fingers twitching, itching to pull her guns out. Her Colonial Marine uniform held no authority in a place like this, so she was on her own defenses.

In a dark corner booth, a sole figure wearing worn snow goggles and a cowl over his head glanced up from his drink. He could sense the change in the mood surrounding him. A woman had walked in the door. She was wearing a Colonial Marine uniform. His first thought was that some scum had recognized him and alerted the authorities. But they sent a woman instead, a woman to do a man's job. He smiled to himself and shook his head, taking a drag out of his cigarette.

Newt finally decided that she wasn't going to get anywhere just standing around. He was here and she needed to find him. So she slowly began to move around the perimeter of the dance floor, eyeing everyone. After awhile she wasn't sure who she was looking for, what he even looked like. It was too dark.

The stranger in the corner booth kept his face hidden in the shadow of his cowl, but his eyes followed her every move through his night-vision goggles, which permitted him to see everything. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and on top of it, she was drop dead gorgeous. He admired her courage for walking into a place like this.

Newt stopped near the bar and surveyed the men sitting there, all of them gawking in her direction. "I'm looking for Elliot Norris!"

They all turned to look at each other and then in unison they all started laughing rather hysterically, like she had just told them the funniest joke in the universe. The music continued to play, the dancers continued to dance. No one responded to her.

Newt frowned to herself. She wasn't going to get anywhere in here. But she was pissed off to no end. She approached the bar, furiously pushing an unsuspecting sole out of her way. "Scotch."

The bartender stared at her for a moment. When she put money on the bar, he poured her the shot and slid it toward her. Newt picked up the shot glass and gulped down the scotch, savoring the heat that burned down her throat. Then she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and started to walk away from the bar.

The guy that she had earlier shoved out of her way stepped in front of her. He gave her a sneer. She stared him down, her brows knitted together in a threatening fashion. The guy stared back at her. He started to reach for his pistol.

"That's right," Newt said with disdain. "Go for the gun. I haven't killed anyone in the last hour. Should be fun."

The guy decided to lower his hand and then he stepped aside.

"Smart move," she said as she moved away from him, glancing back to make sure that he didn't change his mind again.

As she walked along the edge of the dance floor, the five women continued to dance. Newt ignored them, even after one of them circled her erotically. She was going to kill Bishop for making her come down here for nothing. It was obvious that the man she sought was not in the place. She headed for the entrance only to see that five tall Centurions had stepped into her path, forcing her to stop in her tracks. She hated Centurions, having had one too many confrontations with them that all ended badly. For them. Sighing heavily, she folded her arms and stared them down.

The one in the middle spoke first, his voice booming, even over the loud music. "You have no business here, Marine."

"Fine," she said as she unfolded her arms and started forward again, "I was just leaving anyway." Newt intended to just walk right through them, or over them, whatever it was going to take. But she soon saw that they weren't going to budge.

And it didn't look like she was going to get any help from anyone else in the place. The one in the middle started walking toward her. Newt slowly began to back away, her fingers close to her guns. She would use them, if the need arose.

Then she backed up into a wall. She didn't have to look back to know that it was no wall, that it was another Centurion. Making it a total of six. Before she had a chance to react, the one behind her had quickly taken her guns from their holsters. But she wasn't about to give in that easily. She whirled around and slammed the palm of her hand into the front of the Centurion's throat. The Centurion was taken off guard and his arms went in the air before he fell back.

Newt watched helplessly as her precious guns went sailing in opposite directions, disappearing into the crowd on either side. Then someone grabbed her from behind, pinning her arms down. The Centurion she had knocked down was back up on his feet and moving toward her. She pushed upward with her feet, bringing them up to slam into his face. The motion forced her holder to loosen his grip on her and she took advantage of it, turning so she was facing her attacker. She smiled and slammed both her hands into his face, bloodying his nose.

The stranger watched the exchange with growing interest from his dark booth. The girl had balls that just didn't quit. But he knew she was no match for half a dozen Centurions. They'd soon overpower her no matter what moves she possessed.

Newt turned to her next attacker. When he advanced, she kicked him in the gut, only to be blindsided by another Centurion with a hard fist to her face. She went down hard on all fours. The Centurion that had punched her delivered a kick into her gut and she howled in pain, spitting up blood.

"Hey!"

Newt looked up and saw a dark clad figure standing at the edge of the dance floor. His head was covered with a cowl and he wore snow-goggles. Her vision was slightly blurred from the blow to her face and she wasn't sure if the stranger was even human.

The Centurions all turned to face him.

"Now is that any way to treat a lady?" he asked the Centurions.

The leader was holding Newt's head up by her hair. He abruptly released her and moved forward, sizing up this new opponent. "You want a piece of me?"

The stranger pushed the cowl off his head and pulled off his goggles. "Yeah, I want a piece of you."

Newt gasped when the stranger had revealed himself. It was him. It was Dwayne Hicks. She studied his features. He still looked the same, maybe a little older, his hair a little longer. But there was something else there, something she had never seen in him before. Something dark. Something deadly. Like a predator targeting his prey.

Hicks wanted to take out the leader, but the Centurion stepped aside and motioned for his men to take over. No problem. He'd just have to take out all of them. He wasn't prejudice, he just hated Centurions. Six less Centurions in the universe wouldn't be a great loss. As he slowly moved to the center of the dance floor, the dancers quickly scattered in every direction.

The crowd of onlookers began to place bets amongst themselves. They knew what the Centurions were capable of, but most of them also knew what Elliot Norris was capable of. None of them however knew that Elliot Norris was Dwayne Hicks. None of them knew his background. They just knew he was bad news of the dangerous kind.

Hicks kept his face lowered, watching from the tops of his eyes as the first Centurion approached. He also sensed one approaching from somewhere behind him. When the Centurion tried to grab him from behind, Hicks ducked at the last second and moved behind the Centurion, wrapping his arm around his neck. He wrapped his other arm around the Centurion's head and gave a yank until the Centurion's neck snapped. The Centurion fell in a heap and Hicks stepped over him, completely forgotten.

Newt got up on her feet when she saw that the Centurions were no longer paying any attention to her. But she remained rooted, unable to take her eyes off Hicks.

The Centurion who had first approached from in front of Hicks was now coming at him head on, bending to ram him in the stomach with his head. Hicks kicked out, striking the Centurion in the face, then rammed his fist into the Centurion's stomach. The Centurion fell to his knees. Hicks stepped behind the Centurion, grabbing him by the back of the neck and placed his knee on his spine. The sharp sound of the Centurion's spine snapping rang loud enough to be heard above the loud music. Everyone cringed. Hicks released the limp Centurion and nonchalantly smoothed the wrinkles off the sleeves of his long coat.

The Centurion leader was seething. "Kill him!"

The next Centurion advanced while another came from behind. The same ploy again. This time they attacked at the same time. One grabbed Hicks from behind while the other slammed a fist into his stomach, then a fist into his face. Hicks used the Centurion behind him for leverage and he lifted himself up, wrapping his ankles around the other Centurion's neck. Another broken neck was the result. Still horizontal, Hicks spun himself in mid air out of the Centurion's grip and as he came down on his feet, he lunged forward and slammed his forehead against the Centurion's head. The Centurion staggered backward.

Another Centurion advanced, having produced a large double-edged saber and circled Hicks. Hicks sneered as if he was enjoying all of this. The Centurion attacked, swinging the saber at Hicks, who ducked. Another swing and he ducked again. Hicks grabbed the Centurion's wrists and swung him around hard. The saber struck the Centurion he had given a concussion to, slicing his stomach open, right beside Newt. She gasped when she realized that the Centurion's blue blood had splattered all over her face.

Hicks, still holding the wrists of the Centurion, dragged him toward Newt, who jumped and stepped back involuntarily. He yanked the saber from the Centurion's hands and held it out to her. "Here, hold this." She just stared at him, so he shoved the saber into her hand, dragged the Centurion away by the wrists and then released him. In the blink of an eye, Hicks produced nine-inch blades in both hands, like they had suddenly materialized out of nowhere, like magic. He straddled the Centurion on the floor and crossing his wrists, he brought the daggers against the Centurion's throat and with a double stroke, slashed deeply into him, blue blood splattering everywhere. When Hicks got up, he pushed the Centurion with his foot. The Centurion rolled toward a table. The occupants of the chairs surrounding the table quickly scrambled out of the way, trying to avoid being hit by the massive dead Centurion.

The crowd was going crazy. He twirled the knives twice before turning to face the remaining Centurion, the leader.

Newt glanced around at the crowd. The bets were now going in Hicks' favor.

"I'll kill you!" yelled the Centurion leader.

"Give it your best shot," replied Hicks confidently, momentarily wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

The Centurion dragged two of his own blades out of his belt. The two of them circled, sizing each other up. The Centurion lunged at Hicks, daggers swinging. Hicks blocked each of the Centurion leader's blows, sparks flying from the clashing metal. The Centurion backed off. Hicks smiled, motioning him forward with his blades. The Centurion rushed forward again and again Hicks blocked each of the Centurion's rapid dagger swings. Then the Centurion kicked out, hitting Hicks in the kneecap. The distraction was all the Centurion needed to slash with the knife and managing to slice the side of Hicks' arm. Hicks kicked out with his left foot, knocking one of the knives out of the Centurion's hand, then slammed the back of his dagger into the Centurion's eye. Stunned, the Centurion staggered backward and grabbed his remaining knife with both hands, holding it out in front of him in a defensive posture.

Hicks took a moment to glance down at the tear in his coat sleeve. He looked back up at the Centurion leader who was trying to get his bearings. Hicks twirled the blades in his hands several more times. This caused the crowd to cheer him on.

Newt was mesmerized by the pure aggression Hicks exhibited, the brutality in the way he killed his victims. He seemed to be enjoying the battle, thirsting for more blood. She had always thought of the former Colonial Marine as levelheaded, straight-laced and by the book. At least that's how she remembered him. He had left a lasting impression on her. She had been so impressed by him when she was a kid that he was the main reason she had joined the Colonial Marines. But her last impression of him had been thirteen years ago. A lot had happened to her in thirteen years. A lot had obviously happened to him to make him so bloodthirsty and earnestly sought after by the authorities.

Hicks waited for the Centurion to attack. The attack came and he whirled his blades, first blocking the knife the Centurion held and then delivering a criss-cross of cuts into the Centurion's face. But the Centurion continued to advance. Hicks abandoned the blades and they disappeared from his hands, again as if by magic. He punched the Centurion hard in the face, and then delivered another blow, smashing the Centurion's nose with the heel of his hand and sending his elbow into his groin. The Centurion doubled over. Hicks yanked the knife out of the Centurion's hand and buried its ten-inch blade into the back of his throat. The Centurion collapsed on the dance floor, making a gurgling sound.

The crowd cheered and whistled enthusiastically. Hicks raised his foot and scraped the bottom of his shoe across the Centurion's face. "Fucking Centurion shit." He ignored the cheers all around him and started walking wearily toward the bar. As he wiped the sweat from his face, he passed the Marine woman, deliberately avoiding her gaze.

Newt watched him walk away, tossing the saber aside after realizing she was still holding it. "Hicks…"

Hicks heard her call his name, his real name, but he kept walking. The bartender immediately set up three shot glasses and poured tequila into them. It's what he usually drank. He stepped up to the bar and picked up the first shot, downing it. He sensed her approach, even before he saw her from the corner of his eye. Shit, he could smell her coming even before she reached him.

"Dwayne Hicks," she stated rhetorically.

"Never heard of him." Hicks picked up the second shot and downed it.

"Thanks for helping me back there," said Newt, trying to start out on the right foot.

Her scent drifted into his nostrils and Hicks closed his eyes and frowned. He needed this like a hole in the head. "Look…" he started as he opened his eyes and trained them on the tag containing her name and rank. "…Lieutenant Jorden, I'm not coming peacefully so you might as well just leave me the fuck alone."

Newt decided at that moment that she wasn't going to reveal who she was to him. He believed that she was here to arrest him. When he picked up the third shot, she grabbed his wrist, preventing him from bringing it to his mouth. "I'm not here to arrest you," she said.

Hicks could have broken her hand for touching him but he was too damned tired. His eyes came up and met her electric blue ones. For a brief moment he thought he recognized something in them. Then he shook his head. He had obviously been without a woman for way too long. He pulled his wrist out of her grip and finished off the shot. "You know my real name. Why else would you be looking for me?"

"I need your help."

Hicks frowned. "The Company fucked me up the ass more than a dozen times. You think I'm stupid enough to continue to let that happen?" He needed to move away from her, somewhere where he couldn't smell her any longer. Her scent was making him crazy. What the hell was she thinking, walking into a place like this, smelling like that? She was an accident waiting to happen.

Newt reached up to touch her cheek where the Centurion had punched her. The skin was broken and she winced from the pain. Her fingers came back bloodied.

"Whatever it is you want from me, I can't help you. I work alone." Hicks motioned for the bartender. "I need a refill." The bartender immediately came over to pour more tequila into the empty shot glasses. As an afterthought, Hicks added. "And get her some ice."

"I'm not asking you to join the Colonial Marines, Hicks. I know you're a former Marine. I read your file." The bartender handed her a rag with some ice in it and she placed it on her cheek, wincing in pain again.

"So, what does my file say?" Hicks pushed one of the shot glasses toward her.

Newt accepted the shot and drank it. "It says you were part of a marine team before they were all killed by our bug friends. After that you were promoted to Sergeant and put in charge of marine teams for seven years. Then you finally quit. It says you began working as an independent contractor before you took the law into your own hands. And now you're a wanted man."

He pulled out a cigarette and stuck it in his mouth. Then he searched his pockets for his lighter. Where the hell was it? "And what does it say about me quitting?"

Newt reached into her utility belt and retrieved a lighter. She ignited it and placed the flame in front of him. "Only that you snapped and became violent. You spent two weeks in prison on Gateway before you escaped, injuring two guards and stealing a passenger freighter."

Hicks laughed to himself and shook his head, lighting his cigarette before the flame blew out. "I snapped? Well, they're fucking right about that." He recalled the time they had almost given him a lobotomy.

FLASHBACK – SPACE STATION VICTOR ORBITING MARS

Commander Jonathon Kilroy stood beside the examination table where Hicks was lying beneath a white sheet. He worked on a keyboard while his assistant, Miles stood at the head of the table.

Kilroy looked at Miles. "I'm going to remove the stasis field, Miles. How's our patient?"

Miles leaned over to check the instruments on a band around Hicks' right wrist. "He's out cold."

"All right," Kilroy continued, "Let's see what the manual says." He flipped through some pages of a manual. "Okay, it says here to fragment the brain into thirty-six sections. Miles, why don't you start by removing the top of the cranium while I prepare the electrodes?"

As Kilroy walked toward a counter full of small machinery, Miles moved toward Hicks' head. Then he picked up a small laser instrument and ignited it.

Hicks was conscious. He was aware of the two men in the room and he had a bad feeling about this. Fragment the brain into thirty-six sections? Were they talking about his brain?

Just as Miles was about to bring the laser instrument down, a hand grabbed him by the throat.

Kilroy turned and gasped just as Miles was thrown aside, and then watched as Hicks tossed the sheet aside and jumped off the table. "Now, hold on there, son." As Hicks advanced toward him, Kilroy backed into a computer console. He quickly turned and punched a red button. A siren went off, red lights flashing.

Hicks grabbed Kilroy and pushed him through a glass-plate wall. Then he quickly found his clothes and put them on.

A set of doors slid open and Hicks rushed out, glancing through the window of the space station. He saw three security guards heading down one of the corridors. Hicks ducked down and headed in the other direction, checking through the windows to make sure the next corridor was unoccupied. Reaching the other end of the corridor, Hicks blended into a crowd of people making their way around the perimeter of the station. He approached the next corridor and stepped into a line of people waiting to board a medium-sized freighter that could be seen through the windows. A hatch lay open toward the front. Hicks left the line and stepped through the opening.

The freighter pilot turned as Hicks appeared. "Hey, chump, passengers go in the back, so get the fuck out."

Hicks advanced and smashed the pilot's face with his fist. "You get the fuck out." And Hicks tossed him out the hatch. He glanced down at the controls of the freighter. "Okay let's see. You push this, turn that. Piece of cake." He pushed a button to close the hatch door and then activated the freighter.

Back out in the corridor, people impatiently glanced at their watches, waiting for the signal to board the freighter. Suddenly a sharp movement caused the platform to shake. The freighter started lunging back and forth, trying to break free of the station's locks. Everyone panicked and quickly scrambled to get away from the eminent disaster.

Hicks glanced to his left, watching as the station's locks started to crumble.

A voice came on an intercom. "Freighter 36, you are not cleared to unlock! Shut down your engines!"

Hicks pressed a button to respond. "Kiss my ass!" He pushed the lever to make the freighter shoot forward again.

When the freighter finally broke free of the locks, it turned and flew away from the station.

BACK TO THE PRESENT

Newt watched the emotions running rampant on his face, like he was somewhere else for the moment. "Look, you don't have to justify to me why you snapped. I've had my share of confrontations with the aliens." She almost added that he should know because he had been on LV-426 and had seen that she had survived the aliens on her own as a little girl, with no training.

"You're a bug hunter, aren't you?" Hicks asked her dryly.

"Yes."

"So what's your mental state?"

Newt smiled at him. "Unstable."

"Welcome to my world," he said and finished his last shot. He wanted to smile back, but he didn't because he didn't want her to think that he was warming up to her. The truth was, during his USCM days, he couldn't stand seeing the desolate faces of those he had to inform that their son, daughter, mother or father, was not coming back. The Centurion war had really put a hole in his heart. And then the peace treaty had been signed. He didn't give a shit about peace with them. There was way too much bad blood between him and the Centurions. After that he quit the USCM and went on a Centurion killing spree, which led to his arrest. And now he refused to accept the Centurions as anything but prey whenever he had a hankering to blow something away.

Newt decided to put all her cards on the table. "Hicks, I'm here because I know that you know where it is."

Hicks looked down with a frown. He was beginning to think that nothing was sacred any longer. His life was an open book. She didn't have to explain what she was talking about. He knew what she meant by that simple statement. But he couldn't imagine how she had come to have that information. The others who knew were all dead. He had seen them die.

"I need to know where it is," said Newt persistently.

"You're fucking crazy if you think I'm going to tell you. Those bastards are not getting anything out of me."

"You won't be doing it for the Company. You'll be doing it for me."

The left side of Hicks' mouth tilted upward. "And why should I do anything for you?"

"I can make it worth your while."

"There isn't anything you have or can do to make it worth my while. I kill people for a living. If you want somebody blown away, come talk to me, otherwise take a hike."

Newt's attention was drawn to a silver chain hanging from his neck, a small newt. She remembered giving it to him thirteen years ago when she came to visit him in the medical center on Gateway. She was surprised he was still wearing it after all this time.

Hicks looked down at what had drawn her attention and lifted up the silver pendant. "Don't draw any conclusions, Jorden. I don't have some sick fascination with reptiles. This was given to me by someone special."

Someone special? Did he really consider her to be someone special? Newt didn't comment to him about it because the conversation was dangerously close to heading in a direction she didn't want to go. She reached out and put her hand over his. "Please help me, Hicks."

Hicks stared down at her hand. She might have been a Colonial Marine and knew how to kick some ass, but her delicate features betrayed her. She was a woman and he didn't need any romantic entanglements in his life. Her hand traveled along his forearm and up to his shoulder. "Your touch disturbs me, Jorden. I'm advising you to take your hand off me."

Newt knew what she was doing. She had gotten more things out of men with the art of seductive persuasion. "I really need you."

Hicks wanted her to leave him alone. He hated that she was getting to him and he had known her all of ten minutes. He was already extremely close to dragging her into one of the back rooms and having his way with her, just to quickly get her out of his system. "I'm not immune. So unless you plan to show me a good time right now, I'll warn you one last time, take your hand off me."

"Showing you a good time will come with a price." She didn't know what else to say to him, even though she had no intention of 'showing him a good time'.

He knew what her price was. He'd have to tell her the location. "Then fuck off, lady." He shrugged her hand off his shoulder and walked away.

Newt didn't waste any time. She quickly went among the creeps in the lounge and found one of her pulse guns. Then she headed for the door, just as Hicks walked out. He got about ten feet down the street before she caught up to him and pointed the muzzle of her gun into his back. "I'm determined, Hicks. I don't like it when I can't have my way." Before she even realized what happened, Hicks had spun around, grabbed the gun out of her hand and had it pointed into her left eye.

He was nose to nose with her now, his teeth clenched furiously. "What's to stop me from blowing your brains all over the street right now?" He wanted to pull the trigger. He wanted to so bad he could almost taste it.

Newt had an uncanny ability to hide her fear when she felt it starting to rear its ugly head. She believed, without a doubt, that he wouldn't have any qualms about pulling the trigger and killing her, but she maintained her calm demeanor. "I need your help," she said in a quiet even voice.

Hicks glared into her eyes. She didn't show any fear but he could sense it in her. He admired her visible calmness, even though he knew she was probably quaking deep down inside. On impulse, he kissed her harshly and she reacted by sinking her teeth into his lower lip, drawing blood. Hicks abruptly pushed her away from him, angry with himself for kissing her. His body betrayed him and fueled him into wanting a whole hell of a lot more. "Beat it before I change my mind." He wiped the blood off his lip where she bit him and turned his back on her to continue down the street.

Every instinct told Newt to let him go. He wasn't going to be easily swayed into seeing things her way. She had one last trick up her sleeve and she knew that he wouldn't be happy with her afterward. But she would have to deal with it later. She reached into a compartment on her belt and produced a stun dart. Over the years she had mastered the art of throwing it properly and without any further hesitation, she flung the dart at him.

Hicks felt something hit the back of his neck and it stung. His hand reached up and came across a small dart, which he immediately pulled out. He spun around and stared at Jorden. She smiled and shrugged at him, her hands on her slender hips. His vision blurred. "Fucking bitch…" And his legs gave way.

Newt watched him fall and he fought the affects of the tranquilizer. He even managed to get back up, lunging at her furiously.

Hicks wanted to tear her to pieces. He grabbed her arm, but his legs gave out again and he fell into oblivion.

Newt managed to pull away from his grip and reached down to her communicator. "Packer, are you there?"

A voice responded. "Yes, I hear you."

"I need a stretcher."

"I copy that. On my way."

 

Chapter 5 - Onboard the Judgement
​

Newt sat in her chair, the one directly in front of her alien queen. She had her legs curled up against her chest, her arms wrapped around them. But she wasn't looking at the queen. If fact, Newt had her back to her prized possession. She was looking in the direction of her bed, where Hicks was lying unconscious beneath the sheet, where it rested just below his navel. She knew he wasn't going to be happy when he woke up and found himself on her ship, that she had literally kidnapped him. He was going to be even more furious with her when he realized that he had been stripped of his clothes, every last stitch.

The task of undressing and cleaning him up before putting him in her bed had fallen on Bishop. He had volunteered to do the job and as much as Newt would have wanted to do it herself, she didn't speak up, only because her crew had been watching her.

She was a grown woman now and she had had her share of men. But no man compared to what she was observing from a distance. He had to be what, in his late thirties and he was in perfect physical shape. All muscles. He was exactly how she remembered him when she was a kid. Newt had to admit, she had never thought about him in any way other than that she needed information from him. But looking at him now, having seen what he was capable of back in that lounge after fighting and killing the Centurions, she felt the beginnings of a crush.

"Goddammit," she mumbled to herself. This was not what she had been looking for. She didn't want to feel anything for him. She needed information and that was it. She was going to do anything to get it out of him, even if it meant torturing him. Then she smiled and shook her head. Who was she trying to kid? She could never do that to him. She had adored the man when she was a kid, even though she hadn't seen him again after that time in the medical center on Gateway. He was her hero and so was Ripley. No matter what happened between her and Ripley, she had a place in Newt's heart, just as Hicks would always.

She had taken back the pendant she had given him a long time ago and was wearing it around her neck now. He had told her that 'someone special' had given it to him. Did he ever wonder what became of her? He could have contacted her. She was easily reachable. But he didn't. He had been caught up in his own little demented world of self-pity. She had fought her own demons and won. She would have helped him, if he had asked for it.

She looked down at the coat she was wearing. His coat. When she had slipped it on, she figured out where the blades had come from, the ones he had used against the Centurions on Aquifer. They were in his sleeves, released by a mechanism. She wondered where he had gotten such a garment.

Then he stirred. She mentally prepared herself for the coming storm.

Hicks stirred and shook the cobwebs out of his head, fighting for consciousness. He couldn't remember if he had drunk himself into oblivion and where he had been at the time. He desperately needed a cigarette and subconsciously patted himself, looking for the pack he always kept in his coat pocket. As he slowly opened his eyes, he realized he was lying on a comfortable bed, something he hadn't slept in in a long time. He also realized that he was naked underneath the white sheet.

He sat up in the bed and rubbed his face with his hands. Then he looked up and his eyes drifted around the room. Nothing looked familiar. Suddenly his eyes drifted up and he saw the alien queen. Terror seized him and he scrambled to get out of the bed, dragging the bedsheet with him. His legs tangled on the sheet and he fell backward. "Shit…shit…shit."

He jumped up on his feet, wrapping the sheet around himself, his eyes never leaving the giant queen. He sensed the girl was in the room and he saw her from the corner of his eye, but he couldn't look away from the queen. He backed away toward what he figured was the door. Reaching behind him, he felt for the door mechanism and pushed it several times. The door remained shut.

After several seconds trying to get the door to open, he finally realized that the queen wasn't moving. She wasn't even looking in his direction. His experience with alien queens had been minimal. He had only confronted two in the past and never hesitated to blow the shit out of them. Shoot first, ask questions later.

He finally focused on the girl sitting in a chair, her back to the queen, directly beneath the creature. Did she somehow have some power over it? The girl, that Colonial Marine Lieutenant. She had tranquilized him and brought him here. Wherever here was. It all instantly came back to him.

Newt had watched Hicks curiously as he had tried to escape the queen. Finally she decided to answer all of the questions he probably wanted to ask, but couldn't seem to get out. "How do you like my trophy? She's my first kill."

"Are you fucking sick in the head, Jorden? Are you telling me you had the goddamned thing stuffed?" Even though he now realized the alien queen wasn't alive, he still didn't want to be anywhere near it.

"It wasn't easy, I have to admit. But it was worth it. It's helped me cope with my fear of them."

"Where am I?"

"On my ship."

"Where're my clothes?"

"At the laundromat," she said with a smile.

Hicks wanted to wring her beautiful neck. "I told you I wanted to be left alone. I'm not helping the military and I'm not helping the Company."

"And I told you that you wouldn't be helping them. You'll be helping me."

"Fuck that. I'm not helping you. I'm not helping anybody."

"Aren't you being a bit melodramatic?"

"Come on over here and I'll show you how melodramatic I can be. I'll fuck you fifteen different ways before I rip out your heart and shove it down your throat."

Newt had no doubt in her mind that he was capable of doing to her exactly what he had just said. So what was stopping him?

"Did you undress me?" he asked angrily.

"Unfortunately, no. My android had the pleasure of that task."

"You're skating on thin ice with me, Jorden. I eat people like you for breakfast."

"Even a woman like me?" Newt sat back in her seat, her feet on the ground now and she seductively twirled a strand of her blonde hair around her finger.

Hicks started to move in her direction. Just seeing her sitting like that was giving him a boner and he wanted to make good on his threat…Yeah, he'd fuck her fifteen different ways…he knew fifteen different ways. Then he remembered the queen and froze in his tracks. "All right, look…I'll tell you what you need to know and then I'm history. And I mean it."

Newt was slightly disappointed. She had found his weakness. He still feared the aliens and the sight of the queen made him cave without any struggle. "Just like that. You're going to tell me."

"Yeah, just like that." His eyes moved back up to the queen. What had possessed this girl to keep such a loathsome trophy? "You sleep in this room with that thing in here?"

Newt got up from her chair and left the security the queen had surprisingly provided. "It's dead. I killed it. With my bare hands."

Hicks met her eyes as she walked toward him. He didn't know whether to believe her. But if she had, he was curious to know how she had done it. She was obviously a lot braver than he gave her credit for. He had a whole new level of respect for her. Hadn't she managed to single-handedly render him unconscious? But then again, it had been his own stupidity for turning his back on her, for trusting that he had gotten through to her enough that he thought she'd leave him alone.

Newt reached up and touched his bare chest, tracing several scars from an old alien battle. It had been the battle where they had first met, when she was only eleven. "I have my own scars to prove it."

"I'm not doubting your ability. I'm just wondering if you're insane. More insane than me." Hicks grabbed her wrist. She insisted on provoking him into something she'd more than likely regret later. The thing was…she intrigued him. He had threatened her half a dozen times since first laying eyes on her, yet she continued coming back for more. He began to wonder if she was a masochist.

She smiled at his rough treatment. "If you promise to behave yourself, I won't have to keep you locked up in my quarters."

"You're pushing my buttons, Jorden, all the wrong ones."

"Am I?"

For the first time since waking up in her room, he realized that she was wearing his coat. That was a death sentence for some people. He wanted to kill her, but not before he had a chance to fuck her brains out…fifteen different ways. Yeah, she'd be out of his system real fast after that. Where the hell had she come from? Suddenly here to mess up his life. He couldn't remember the last time he had actually lusted for a woman. Why was she suddenly in his life, making him think of things he hadn't thought of in ages? Like sex. Why did she have to be so goddamned beautiful? It would have made things a hell of a lot easier if she had the face of a chimpanzee.

"I didn't want to force you here, Hicks. Tell me what I need to know."

Hicks looked deep into her blue eyes. He couldn't look away. "I'll tell you what you wanna know."

Newt touched a button on her belt. "Are his clothes clean?"

A voice answered her back. "Yes."

"Bring them."

Hicks hadn't released her wrist yet. He wasn't finished with her and he'd be damned if she was going to deny him what he wanted.

Newt looked back at Hicks, clearly reading what he had in mind. She didn't back away when he leaned forward, pausing an inch from her lips. Her pulse was racing, her heart beating so hard she thought it was going to burst out of her chest. No man had ever affected her this way. He closed the gap between them and kissed her. There was nothing harsh about it this time. She instinctly parted her lips and wasn't disappointed when he accepted the invitation without a moment's hesitation or trepidation. She tasted his blood where she had bit him earlier.

Hicks thought things were only going to get much worse now because she was in his system for good. Like a drug. He wanted to kick his own ass for being weak. He should have backed off right away, but he didn't. He wanted her. More than anything else right now. Most of the women he'd been with over the years were seasoned professionals and as long as he used protection, he was safe. He never got emotionally involved, never let anyone get too close to him, never sought out a relationship. But Jorden was nothing like them. She was smart…and she was clean…

The door chirped and Newt pulled away from him. "Come in."

When the door slid open, Hicks turned to find Bishop walking in. "Bishop?"

"Mr Hicks," Bishop said, looking from him to Newt and back to Hicks. He sensed that he had interrupted something. "It's good to see you again."

Hicks frowned at the android. The last time he had seen Bishop was on the dropship, thirteen years ago. What in holy blazes was he doing here? He turned to Jorden suspiciously and he unconsciously ran his tongue over the bite mark on his lip.

The simple movement made Newt's cheeks heat up. Suddenly angry with herself for flushing like that, she started to walk out, pushing passed Bishop. "When he's dressed, Bishop, bring him to the Bridge."

Hicks turned and followed her with his eyes. He wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily. They had some unfinished business and before setting foot off her ship he planned on getting some closure to this little fling she unknowingly pushed him into. The door slid shut behind her and Hicks turned back to Bishop, who walked up and held his clothes out to him. "Bishop, what the fuck are you doing here, man?" Hicks abandoned the sheet and grabbed his pants.

Bishop had learned to ignore the unnecessary crude language humans used so often. He responded in a cordial manner. "I'm part of this team. Have been for some years now. She's incredible, isn't she?"

Hicks zipped up his pants and grabbed his shirt. "Who?" He wasn't sure if Bishop was referring to the creepy queen in the room or the one that had just walked out.

"Rebecca."

Hicks had been buttoning his shirt and stopped halfway. He looked up at Bishop. "Rebecca?" Rebecca Jorden. He knew that name from somewhere. He went into the recesses of his mind, deep in the vault he liked to keep closed. Rebecca. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me that sadistic goddess is the kid?"

Bishop raised his eyebrows, not knowing who the kid was. "What kid?" he asked innocently.

"The kid from the colony on LV-426."

"You mean, Newt, as she liked to be called back then?" he smiled.

"Yes, yes…that's her?"

Bishop's smile faded. Rebecca had apparently not told him who she was. She must have had her reasons for not wanting to tell Hicks. And now he had said too much and didn't think he'd be able to retract what had already been said.

Hicks took Bishop's silence as an affirmative. He raised his hands to his head, running his fingers through his hair, then wanted to rip it out. "Fuck…holy fuck…"

Since he had guessed it on his own, Bishop decided not to deny it. "She's all grown up."

"Yeah, no shit." Hicks started pacing like a caged tiger. He felt strange, like he was stuck in some dream, like he had done something forbidden. Why hadn't she told him who she was from the beginning? He probably would have still refused to go with her, but he would have at least been more pleasant about it. He had acted like a complete asshole. But then again, she hadn't acted like the innocent young kid he remembered her to be. She had provoked him and was seducing him to get what she wanted. Yeah, there was no doubt about it. She was all grown up. He could still taste her on his lips. Oddly enough, despite the fact that he knew who she was, the knowledge still didn't quench the burning desire he felt for her. She had put herself in his system and now he couldn't get her out.

"Is everything all right?" Bishop asked with a small measure of concern.

Hicks felt sick to his stomach. Then his attention was drawn by the alien queen. He turned to face the thing and took three steps toward it before stopping. She had killed this queen with her bare hands. "Tell me something, Bishop. How'd she kill this queen?"

"From what the others told me, the queen had Rebecca pinned down and Rebecca ripped into the queen's chest plate with her fist, killing her instantly." Bishop shrugged as if he was telling him about someone crossing the street.

Hicks backed away from the queen and turned to Bishop. "What about the acid blood? Her fist should have disintegrated."

"No, not with the new armor the Colonial Marines are using nowadays. It stands up to the alien blood. Rebecca wears armored gloves, too. She likes to, what she calls, get up close and personal sometimes and takes precautious measures to ensure that she's protected from the acid blood."

Hicks turned back to the queen. He suddenly felt an overwhelming pride for Jorden. Or Newt, or whatever she wanted to be called. She had somehow overcome her fear of the aliens. It was something he had never learned to do. He had avoided any type of situation that involved them, letting others handle the bugs. "Do me a favor, Bishop."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Don't tell her I know."

Bishop was puzzled at first. "Don't tell her you know how she killed the queen?"

Hicks turned to him and frowned. "No," he said impatiently, wanting to follow it with 'idiot', but respected Bishop too much to call him that. "Don't tell her I know who she is."

Bishop nodded his head, not sure why the two of them felt the need to keep up the charade. "Yeah, okay. Your secret's safe with me."

Hicks moved toward the door. "But it really pisses me off that she didn't tell me." The door slid open and the two walked out of Newt's quarters. "Hey, Bishop, you got any smokes on ya?" He knew the android didn't smoke, but he liked joking with him.

Newt was alone on the Bridge, sitting in a seat behind the helm. The ship was on automatic so there wasn't much for her to monitor while Private Cole was on his evening break. She had one foot up on the control panel and was smoking a cigarette. Her thoughts were focused on Hicks. She couldn't shake the memory of that intimate kiss they had shared only moments ago. She reached up to touch her lips and her stomach tightened in knots. It wasn't how she had anticipated their reunion to go. She had always pictured it to be like the reunion between a father and daughter, only because she had pictured him to be so much older. But he wasn't old. No, he was irresistible. She had been attracted to him from the moment she first laid eyes on him at that lounge, when he came to her rescue against the Centurions. There was an animal magnetism about him that overwhelmed her down to her core. Just the way his hair hung down over his eyes sent her pulse racing. She didn't want to feel this way about him. But it was too late. The damage had been done.

She heard the footfalls behind her and turned as Hicks and Bishop walked in. The sight of him sent her stomach into knots again and she frowned, looking away.

Hicks could sense her uneasiness from across the control room. He decided to ignore it for the time being and planned to pretend like nothing had happened between them. But he knew it wasn't going to be easy. His knowledge of her identity and the fact that he wanted her more than ever was an internal battle he was going to have to deal with on his own.

Bishop led the way to the helm and motioned for Hicks to take the open seat beside Newt. Hicks hesitated for a moment, and then sat down without a word.

Newt didn't want to look at him for fear she'd blush like a schoolgirl in front of him again. "Tell me where it is, Hicks." She took a long drag from her cigarette.

"It's in the Plato Sector. Coordinates 157 mark 14."

She turned to him then, momentarily surprised. "You memorized the coordinates?"

"I didn't trust myself to write it down somewhere because I knew I'd forget where I put it."

Newt turned to Bishop and the silent command had been relayed. Bishop turned to the computer and began punching keys. She involuntarily jumped when Hicks moved toward her, only to see that he was reaching for the pack of cigarettes resting on the control panel in front of her.

Hicks saw her jump when he reached over. He lingered near her to retrieve a cigarette from the pack and to light it. He could have done it from his seat, but he wanted to understand her sudden uneasiness around him. "You know, smoking's not good for you," he said as he leaned back in his seat again, dragging on the cigarette.

"Everything I've done in my life isn't good for me. Why stop now?"

Bishop turned toward them. "I've got it."

"How far away is it?" asked Newt.

"It's approximately sixty-eight point three light years away."

That meant cryo-sleep. She despised going anywhere that required cryo-sleep. "Tell me what you saw there."

Hicks knew she was talking to him. "You know what I saw. You wouldn't have been looking for me if you didn't know."

"Why didn't you go back?"

"Because the mother fuckers are down there."

Newt knew he meant the aliens. She stubbed out her spent cigarette and reached for the pack of cigarettes to light another one. "I'm sorry I had to use drastic measures to bring you up here. You're free to go."

Hicks knew his mind had been made up before he had a chance to even toy with the idea. "I'm going with you."

Newt hadn't expected that. She turned around in her seat to face him. "What?"

"You heard me."

"You were dead set against even supplying me the information, Hicks."

"I changed my mind."

"Yeah, well, I've changed mine, too. You're leaving."

"Tough shit. I'm staying."

Newt knew she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it. She had managed to make him see things her way when she shot that dart and tranquilized him in order to get him on the ship. She could use the same method to get him off the ship. But she didn't think he'd ever let her get away with that stunt again. "Fine. But I'm in charge here."

"I'm not looking to take over your job, Jorden. You're welcome to keep your command."

Then a thought occurred to her. "Wait a minute, we're short one cryo-chamber. I have just enough for me and my crew."

Bishop chimed in. "Actually we have just enough. Sergeant Miller started his leave this morning because his wife is having a baby any day now. He picked up a shuttle from Aquifer earlier today."

Newt wanted to reach out and choke Bishop for not catching on to what she had tried to do. She knew Miller was gone. Miller was her second in command. Why would Bishop think she wouldn't know that her second in command was on leave? She almost had the perfect reason for Hicks to leave and be out of her life. She hated not having control over her feelings. Hicks was stirring up emotions she had long ago locked up in a vault. His presence affected her, clouded her mind, and made her want him with every fiber of her being. "Thanks for that bit of news, Bishop."

The sarcasm was lost on Bishop, but Hicks caught it.

"Should I plot a course to the nearest colony for provisions?" asked Bishop.

"Yes," replied Newt. From the corner of her eye, she saw Hicks looking at her. He hadn't stopped looking at her since walking in. Her mistake had been in provoking him. He was expecting some kind of sexual favor for the information he had provided. If she went down that road with him, she'd get emotionally attached, maybe even fall in love with him. Love, lust, what did it matter? It was all the same to her.

Hicks got up and moved toward her. She flinched again, but barely. Maybe someone other than himself wouldn't have caught it. But he saw it. He put one hand on the top of her chair and the other hand on the armrest, trapping her. "I want my chain back." If he was going to pretend that he didn't know who she was, then he needed to play the part, all the way.

Newt looked up at him. She pulled the chain over her head and when he held out his hand, she dropped it into his palm. In her mind she thought that he was lingering over her way too long. "Bishop, when you're finished over there, give Mr Hicks a grand tour of the ship, please. And give him a uniform. It'll draw less suspicion if he's dressed like one of us."

"No problem. I'm finished anyway. Right this way, Mr Hicks."

Hicks barely suppressed a smile at the way she managed to take control of every situation, or at least what she thought was control. He understood her now. She held up a brave front, but he knew that deep down inside, she was still the innocent little girl he remembered. He moved away from her and joined Bishop as he slipped the chain over his head. "Lead the way, Bishop," he said in a fairly bored tone.

 

Chapter 6 - La Grange Colony, Orion IV​

The sun was bright and the air was hot on the arid planet of Orion IV. The LaGrange Colony was the capitol and where most of the planet's occupants resided. Cobblestone Street was lined with small outdoor shops where peddlers sold wares of every kind. The Colonial Marines walked among them, spending their free hours picking up a few things before the long flight to the Plato Sector.

Newt stopped to browse through various colored tank tops stacked on a table. She had no interest in buying anything. She was just curious to see what Hicks was up to. Something about him had changed. It was in the way he suddenly acted around her. In the beginning he had threatened to kill her a dozen times, a dozen different ways. But now he just stared at her all the time, always with that brooding expression. It sent chills up and down her spine. Her stomach tightened every time he walked into a room she was occupying. On top of all that, she knew he wanted her and he knew she wanted him. The sexual tension between them was frustrating and overwhelming.

From the corner of her eye, Newt saw him buy a pack of cigarettes. He exchanged a few words with the peddler as he lit a cigarette and held up four fingers in front of the peddler's face. The peddler shrugged his shoulders and Hicks pointed in the general direction of the dropship. The peddler nodded in understanding and Hicks handed him some money.

Hicks turned and slung his pulse rifle more securely over his shoulder. When he looked up, he caught the kid looking in his direction, even though she quickly looked away, pretending to be interested in a rack full of ladies' hats. The kid. She was no kid. He smiled to himself and walked toward her. She looked up and saw him coming, and then turned away again. Hicks stopped in front of another peddler. "I'll take five of those chocolate bars."

Newt looked up. She saw Hicks buying some candy bars. After he paid for them, he turned toward her again. He tossed one of the candy bars in her direction and she caught it. He had put three of them away in his pockets and unwrapped the last one, taking a bite out of it. She put the candy bar in her pocket and turned back to the god-awful looking hats.

Hicks came up close behind her and leaned in to talk into her ear. "I hope you're not planning on buying one of these butt-ugly hats, Jorden. It doesn't seem like your style."

Newt turned around to face him. "And what would you know about my style, Hicks?"

"I'm just giving you my personal opinion." He looked over her shoulder at the hats hanging on the rack. "Doesn't look like something a bug hunter would wear." When he looked back at her, she graced him with a smile and he returned it.

The sound of Bishop's voice came on their headsets, always interrupting the moment. "I've picked up a hive signal on the planet. Northwest about 600 kilometers from your present location."

Hicks frowned. "Say again, Bishop, a hive on this planet?"

"Affirmative. But it's dormant, no movement."

Hicks turned to Newt. "We better head over there."

Newt shook her head. "We come across dormant hives all the time. We'll report the location and let another squad take care of the problem."

Hicks couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're gonna risk leaving a hive exposed for anyone of these poor unsuspecting soles to wander over there and pick up a facehugger? You know how fast these fuckers can spread."

Newt reached down to switch her headset to 'all call'. "Pack it up, Marines. We're cutting out. Got some eggs to scramble."

The team met back at the dropship. There were four shipping boxes stacked next to the ramp. The boxes were labeled with a brand of cigarettes.

"Packer, Snow, get those boxes inside." Newt turned to Hicks. "You bought those?"

"Yeah."

"You plan on chain smoking or something?"

"Maybe."

They ascended the ramp and seconds later it closed behind them. The dropship lifted off, leaving a cloud of dust blowing around. Those that had been unfortunate to be close enough grabbed on to anything immobile and angrily shook their fists at the Marine ship.

Six hundred kilometers later, the dropship touched down again, disembarking its passengers before dusting off again. The squad made their way to a cave entrance.

"Hicks, I want you to just stay back."

Hicks turned to Newt. "I've been in hives a thousand times, Jorden. I can handle myself."

"That's fine, but I still want you to cover our backs."

Hicks was about to protest, but decided against it. He didn't want to undermine her authority in front of her subordinates. "Yeah, sure. No problem."

The squad entered the dark cave. They turned on their helmet lamps, panning the beams back and forth as they moved forward, the path leveling downward. Newt was in the lead as typical of any hive raiding party. The tight corridor opened up into a large chamber. Their light beams weren't enough to light it completely.

Silently resting in rows on the ground were hundreds of dormant alien eggs.

Packer broke the silence with a loud laugh. "Anyone for an alien omelet?"

"Shut the fuck up, you idiot," said Newt. "The slightest vibration will cause them to open." She sighed heavily. How long had these eggs been here and how had they gotten here? "Burn them all." She stepped aside as her squad laid in three streams of fire from their flame-throwers, setting the eggs on fire.

Hicks watched the eggs burning. A quick movement to his right made him turn and before he realized it, a facehugger slammed into him. His arms had gone up in time to hold the crab-like creature back, preventing it from shoving its grotesque appendage down his throat.

Newt saw the attack as if it was happening in slow motion. She rushed over to Hicks, who continued to struggle against the surprisingly strong creature. The creature proceeded to wrap its tail around his neck. She unholstered a device that had come in handy hundreds of times. "Don't move, Hicks."

Hicks was already feeling himself weaken as his oxygen was cut-off. Then just as quickly as the facehugger had attacked him, it suddenly released him and fell on its back at his feet. He gasped for air and kicked the thing away from him. Newt trained her pulse rifle at it and blew it to pieces. "What…what the hell did you do…to get it off me?" he asked between gasps of air.

Newt held up her tazer gun. She had zapped the facehugger, momentarily stunning it so it could be disposed of properly, away from its intended host, where any acid blood could do serious damage.

"Thanks," he finally said after catching his breath.

"I thought I told you to be careful."

"You told me to cover your back. You never said anything about being careful." The moment hadn't called for light-hearted humor, but Hicks was elated to have survived another facehugger attack. There had been two other close calls during his later years in the Marines and the first one had earned him a scar above his left eye. Another inch and he would have been blinded.

Newt punched his arm. "Quit messing around and let's get the hell out of here."

With the task complete, the squad emptied out of the cave and boarded the dropship.

The last few hours before cryo-sleep were spent eating, exercising and joking around. This was the typical mood of the Colonial Marines. More goofing around took place in the docking bay. Bishop impressed them with his many knife tricks and they cheered him on.

Hicks watched them from a distance, sitting on some crates, smoking a cigarette. He knew all of Bishop's knife tricks. When Jorden had introduced him to the squad, they looked at him like he had four heads. Maybe they thought he was a washed up Marine who quit when the going got tough. He didn't fit into their plans. It was no big deal. He wasn't planning on making any friends. Friendship only led to deep sorrow. He didn't want to mourn any of them if they got themselves killed. And he knew this mission was going to lead to that.

His main concern however was Jorden. He couldn't get himself to refer to her as Newt. Newt was too cutesy of a name. There was nothing cute about her. She was a real looker, physically fit from head to toe, courageous and hard on herself and her people. She had survived the countless challenges presented by the aliens and came out on top. Even though he knew that she could take care of herself when it came to the bugs, he still couldn't help but want to protect her.

She was tough as nails, but everything about her was feminine and it drove him up a fucking wall. There had been women in his life, but none had ever elicited this kind of overwhelming sexuality and she wasn't doing anything intentional. Jorden made a gesture, something as simple as biting her lower lip in concentration and he'd start to sweat. Then whenever she was within five feet of him, he'd smell her and he was a goner.

Hicks glanced in her direction and couldn't suppress his smile. As tough as she was, some of the things she did made her appear vulnerable. It was a simple task. She was painting her toenails. But it was driving him crazy, which was the reason he decided to cut out before the sensation he felt got too far out of control.

Newt watched her crew with a smile as they laughed and enjoyed Bishop's antics. She was sitting on a chair, one foot up on the edge as she painted her toenails. It was the only womanish thing she did. Forget the makeup and the hair combs. She didn't even paint her fingernails. But she liked having red toenails.

She knew Hicks was watching her, always watching her. Then from the corner of her eye, she saw him hop off the crates he had been sitting on and then he walked out of the docking bay. Something was stressing him out and she wondered if it was because of where they were headed. She wondered if he suffered the same nightmares everyone who came in contact with the aliens suffered. No one was immune to the fear the aliens elicited. She still feared them; she just learned how to hide it from everyone else.

"Bishop…" she called out. The laughter died down momentarily as everyone turned to her. "How long before we jump?"

Bishop checked his internal clock. "There's still three hours and twenty-seven minutes."

Newt got up and walked barefoot out of the docking bay. She was determined to tell him the truth. She wanted him to know who she really was. She wanted to tell him how she had coped throughout the years and how she could help him do the same.

She reached the door to his quarters a few minutes later and pushed the buzzer. She waited for a response and none came, even after she hit the buzzer two more times. Just when she was about to give up and look for him elsewhere, the door slid open. Hicks stood in the doorway, wearing standard issue green boxers and nothing else. His hair was wet and so was the rest of him, like he had just gotten out of the shower. But he wore the chain with the pendant. Did he ever take it off?

"Oh, uh…sorry, I'll come back later," she said as she backed away from the doorway.

Hicks had taken a cold shower after leaving the docking bay. "I'm done. You can come in." He stepped aside and he noticed her hesitation before she finally made up her mind to walk in passed him. He pushed the button to close the door and then he turned toward her. She was walking around his room, looking at things he had scattered around.

Newt was a nervous wreck. This confused her. She had faced full-grown alien drones and facehuggers and queens of every different size and she was nervous about telling Hicks who she was. She spotted his pack of cigarettes on his nightstand and walked over to them.

Hicks walked toward her as she pulled out a cigarette. When she tried to light it, her hand was shaking so much the flame kept going out. He came up and placed his hand over hers to steady it so she could light her cigarette. Something was obviously making her visibly nervous. She had always hidden her emotions well. He lit his own cigarette before asking her, "Is something wrong?"

"Yes," she said as she looked up at him, trying to focus on his face and not on his abs. "I need to tell you something."

Hicks looked into her eyes. He had a sneaking suspicion she was about to tell him everything. If she did then there was no use in him pretending that he didn't know.

"My name's Rebecca Jorden…I'm Newt."

"I already know."

Newt's jaw dropped. "How long have you known?"

"Since Bishop told me the day you kidnapped me."

Newt shook her head with a sigh. "I'm gonna have to talk to him about that big mouth of his."

"So now that it's out in the open, we don't have to pretend anymore." Hicks picked up a bottle of tequila he had gotten on Orion IV. "How about a drink?"

"Yeah, sure." Newt sat down on the side of the bed and waited for Hicks to come back with two cups in which he poured the tequila. She took one of them and followed him with her eyes as he moved to sit a few feet away on the bench against the wall. It disturbed her that he made no move to get dressed.

"So whatever happened to Travis?" He recalled with vivid detail how he had risked his life for a puppy just to get a smile out of her when she was a kid.

Newt smiled and looked down, also recalling the memory. "Travis is old and currently living with Ellen. They wouldn't let me take him with me. Pets aren't allowed in the military."

"And what's up with Ripley?" he asked.

"She's living in Napa Valley, has her own vineyard."

"No shit."

"I haven't seen her in almost eight years."

"How come?"

"Well, we had this big blowout about me joining the Marines. She wanted me to stay with her. But when I turned eighteen I knew what I wanted to do and nobody was going to tell me any different. She re-married, you know, and she had twins, a boy and girl. They're probably about ten or eleven by now."

"I'm glad for her. Looks like she learned to move on."

"I couldn't do that, Hicks. I knew those things were out there and I was deathly afraid of them. The nightmares were horrible. Even after a few years, I still had the dreams. It was almost like the aliens were calling out to me, mocking me, daring me to face them again. I still saw that alien queen chasing me and Ripley. I was terrified. After hearing about the alien sightings on some of the planets, I knew what I needed to do. I wanted to be part of the exterminating team. But I needed to join the teams first. I had read about some of your accomplishments with the Centurions. In fact, I had hoped to be assigned to one of your teams, but then you disappeared."

Hicks looked away and frowned.

"What really happened to you, Hicks?"

Hicks looked down at his cup of tequila and took a sip. "I guess I was in a pretty dark place in my head back then. I was blind drunk most of the time. It was the only thing that kept me from thinking about things. I was pissed at myself; I was pissed at the universe. It amazes me sometimes that I survived those times because I can't tell you how many times I woke up with my face in the gutter, my wallet and most of my clothes gone. Or how many times I thought about eating a bullet." He laughed.

Newt didn't laugh with him. She didn't think it was funny at all. "But you survived it."

"Barely. The nightmares were pretty bad for me, too. I kept seeing Hudson getting dragged down, I kept reliving those few moments when we entered the atmosphere processor and were under attack. You have no idea how scared to death I was when we finally made it back to the APC."

"You didn't show it."

"How would you know? You were eight years old."

"I was eleven."

"Anyway, it wasn't even the aliens that put me over the edge. It was those fucking Centurions."

"Why do you hate them so much?"

Hicks looked down again. It was painful to talk about. God knows he had tried to deal with it, went through numerous psyche analyses and just about put the analyst through the wall. "I was on leave…with my family. I hadn't seen my father and mother in three years. My little sister, Maya, who was sixteen years old at the time was with us."

Newt had a feeling this wasn't going to be a very happy story. She wondered why his file didn't mention anything about his family, or where they were.

"We were having a picnic. Everything was perfect. Until a Centurion raiding party showed up. They held me at gunpoint while they dragged my father and mother away. Then…the Centurion bastards held me down and forced me to watch them…rape my little sister…" Hicks almost lost it. He could clearly see it happening as if it had just happened. "She put up quite a fight, kicking and screaming the whole time."

Newt felt a lump in her throat.

"Can you image what was going through my mind at that moment? What could I be thinking of as I watched a fat Centurion fuck my little sister and then dice her up alive right before my eyes? I couldn't do anything. They had four Centurions sitting on me, holding me down. I tried to get them off and I screamed and swore at them, but they didn't stop. They…they cut her into little pieces…" Tears stung his eyes and he clenched his teeth.

Newt was horrified. She didn't know what to say. She wanted to console him in some way, but he seemed unapproachable at the moment as he recounted the events, a glazed look in his tear-filled eyes.

"They took me to a slave camp with my parents and separated my mother from us. Later, my father heard she got sick and he wanted to see her. He was shot in the kneecaps. They killed both of them after that. The Centurions killed my entire family. There isn't a single moment in my life right now that I don't think about wasting the entire race."

Newt fully understood what he was going through. She could relate. Her entire family had been killed, too. By the aliens. "How did you manage to survive?"

"I was being taken to this building I knew where humans went in and never came out. I took off running and the Centurion guards came after me. I ran for miles and lost myself in the cliffs. Later I hitched rides to various spaceports and finally got away. When I got back my superiors all wanted to know what happened to me. I talked to whoever they wanted me to talk to. I told them what the Centurions had done. Nobody believed me. They wouldn't even verify that a human slave camp even existed. I knew what I wanted to do, even after I had heard about the peace treaty between us and the Centurions. I armed myself and went back. I killed most of their high ranking Centurion officials. I was like a goddamned killing machine, unable to stop. All I could see was Maya being sliced into little pieces in front of my eyes."

"I'm sorry about your family, Hicks."

Hicks turned to Newt, almost forgetting that she had been in the room. He had been so consumed in his visions. "I want them all dead. I know not all of them are bad, but I still want them all dead."

Newt wanted to change the subject because he was starting to sound psychotic all of a sudden, maybe going down to that dark place he had mentioned earlier. "Your file says you turned to contract killing."

"They forgot to add that I only kill Centurions. I got caught and they threw me in prison on Gateway." Hicks frowned again. "I would have been fine with serving my sentence, but someone had other plans for me. They were going to give me a fucking lobotomy."

"What? Performing a lobotomy on a prisoner is against the morality act. You could have reported those guys."

"Yeah, right. They would have made up some story. I mean, you've read my file. What'd it say, that I escaped from prison and injured some guards? It was all bullshit."

"It's not the first time that entries on records are false. When situations can't be explained, they make things up."

"I almost killed innocent people when I stole that freighter. I was trying to break free of the station. The whole outer wall could have come off. I was reckless. I suppose I'm just your average, run-of-the-mill bad boy."

Newt shrugged. "I've done my share of reckless deeds."

"Like when you killed that queen I saw in your quarters?"

"It was no big deal. I got careless and fell. She came down on top of me and she would have crushed me if I hadn't been wearing my body armor. I was also lucky to be wearing my armored gloves because I smashed my fist into her chest. As she started bleeding to death, I crawled out from under her."

"Yeah, I'd say that was pretty reckless."

"That bitch gave me permanent scars." Newt lowered the collar of her teeshirt down to reveal her left shoulder. "I've got one right here," she pointed out. "From her thumb nail when she grabbed my shoulder."

Hicks got up from the bench and came down on one knee in front of her to inspect the scar just below her collarbone.

"And the rest of her fingers got me back here," she said as she turned slightly to show him the back of her shoulder.

"Must have hurt like hell. You're lucky she didn't pierce you down to your heart."

"That would have ended it for me."

Hicks knew he was lingering too long this close to her. He was going to get up. In a minute. He just wanted to linger a minute longer so he could smell her. "Yeah, I've got plenty of my own scars." He glanced down at his hand where an eleven-year-old girl had bitten him once, the scar still visible.

Newt knew what he was thinking and she reached to take his hand, looking down at the small scar. She had been so frightened back then, living on her own for weeks, trying to avoid the alien drones seeking live hosts for the eggs. She involuntarily kissed his hand where the scar was, then looked up into his eyes. "Hicks, why didn't you tell me that you knew who I was?"

"Well, why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wanted you to form your own opinion of me without knowing that I was the little girl you rescued."

"I don't see a little girl when I look at you."

"I don't see an average, run-of-the-mill bad boy when I look at you."

Hicks made up his mind in two seconds. He lowered his other knee and moved closer to her. But not too quickly. He wanted to see what her reaction would be, even as he made his intention quite clear. He wasn't disappointed when she lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck.

His eyes were intensely locked on her and Newt felt her cheeks heat up in response. He leaned closer to her and she looked down briefly, her eyes drawn by the chain hanging down on his bare chest. "Don't you ever take this off?"

"No, never."

"Why not?"

"Because I made a promise a long time ago that I would always wear it."

Newt initiated the kiss this time. Nothing was going to stop her feelings for him. No matter how many times she tried to convince herself that she wasn't, she knew she was falling in love with him.

Hicks kissed her back. She parted her lips and he dipped his tongue into her mouth. She tasted like tequila and tobacco. When she started running her fingers through his hair, he knew there was no turning back.

Until Bishop's voice came on the com. "We've got a problem, Rebecca. You're going to want to see this."

Hicks reluctantly pulled away from her, sighing heavily and looking annoyed. "Shit…"

Newt got up from the bed. "Where are you, Bishop?"

"I'm on the bridge."

"Be there in a minute." Newt started to walk toward the door. She paused and turned back to Hicks who was getting on his feet. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

"Yeah, yeah, get out of here."

Newt turned and as the door slid open she walking out.

When Newt got to the bridge, she found Bishop at the communication panel. "What is it, Bishop?"

"I received a message from a Centurion colony on Baronia III. There's an infestation at one of the hospitals."

"What's the problem? Can't their army handle the situation?" The vision of a sixteen year old girl being diced up by the Centurions came to her mind. She didn't want to help any Centurions.

"Their weapons have no affect."

"Tough shit. Tell them to blow the dust off their slingshots." Newt started to walk away and then stopped, her shoulders slumping. Not all Centurions were bad. Some of them were good. Her problem was that she was just too soft. She turned her head back toward Bishop. "Tell Packer to meet me in the docking bay."

Hicks paced in his quarters. 'Don't go anywhere', she had told him. "Fuck this," he finally said. He threw on pants and a teeshirt and then walked out of his quarters to find out what was going on. He hated being left out of the action. If something was going on, he wanted to be part of it.

He found Bishop on the bridge. "What's going on, Bishop? I thought we were heading for our jump point."

"We had to make a slight detour."

"Where's Jorden?" he asked, having expected to see her on the bridge.

"She and Corporal Packer are answering a bug call."

"Where? Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"She didn't think it was necessary to gear up the entire squad."

Hicks moved over to the navigation panel and studied the graph and the figures there. "What the fuck…Baronia III? Is that where the call came from?"

"Yes. The Centurions have an infestation in one of the hospitals."

"Shit! Goddammit, Bishop…are you daft or something? Centurions breed the mother fuckers. They can control them!"

Bishop stared at him blankly, as if he had just been told that the Earth was flat. "I was unaware that they…"

"It's not an infestation, it's a goddamned trap! Call her, where the hell is she?"

Bishop hurried to the communication console where he tried to raise Newt. "Judgement to Drop 1, come in. Drop 1 this is the Judgement, come in, please."

Hicks grabbed the small mic out of Bishop's hands. "Jorden, come in, goddammit! Are you there?" Then he turned to Bishop. "Why the hell isn't she answering?"

Bishop walked over to the radar console. "The ship's still on radar. I can see the blip on the screen. Maybe they're in a dead zone, unable to communicate."

Then Hicks saw Bishop frown. "What?" he asked.

Bishop looked up at Hicks and he announced in an even, calm tone, "The signal's gone."

Hicks stared at Bishop in alarm.

 

Chapter 7 - Somewhere on Baronia III​

Newt kicked and clawed at her Centurion captors as they tossed her into a cold, damp cell. One of them held her pinned to the ground face down, while the other grabbed a knife and sawed at Newt's hair, cutting it haphazardly at her neck. "You bastards!" She bucked to get them off her.

The two Centurions grinned and laughed and they got up. Newt jumped to her feet as they jabbed at her with sticks. She kicked out at them and one of them caught her foot. The dampness of the floor made her lose her footing and she fell flat on her back. The Centurions grabbed her by the wrists and put iron shackles around them, attached to long chains, which were attached to a wall.

"What do you want from me?" she screamed at the Centurions.

The one who had cut off her hair, held it up to his nose and sniffed it. "The word on the streets is that you and a friend of yours killed Galor Skul's son at the Louvre on Aquifer."

Newt could only assume that the Centurion son in question was killed by Hicks at that seedy bar she found him at. But she wasn't about to tell them that. "I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know him and I don't know no Galor Skul."

"Oh, you'll know him soon enough."

"We'll be back to have some fun with you later," promised the second Centurion.

They left her alone, closing the door behind them with a bang. Newt dabbed at an ache above her left eye from the impact of the dropship when it had gotten shot down by some kind of Centurion weapon. Her hand came back stained with blood and she was already feeling woozy. She felt around her head as the weight of her long hair was gone. They sliced it off unevenly and she clenched her teeth in anger. Her next thought went to Packer, wondering what had happened to him.

Minutes later Newt heard the sound of an approaching ship. She quickly got up on her feet and headed for an opening in the wall, barely reaching as the chains prevented her from moving any further. It was the other dropship from the Judgement. They were coming to rescue her. She watched as the dropship swooped down at an impossible arch and then leveled off at the last second, coming down to rest at the center of the courtyard. She gazed down and saw that she was approximately two hundred feet up in a stone tower. Her attention was drawn by the dropship's ramp coming down. The first one she saw was Hicks.

Hicks came down the ramp, yielding two pulse rifles with grenade launchers. He was pissed off and there was nothing worse than fucking Centurions pissing him off. They were all dead meat. Behind him appeared Privates Snow and Roth and Corporal Krall, holding similar weapons.

A slew of Centurions poured out of the entrance to the compound. Some of them had alien drones on leashes. This made the squad of bug hunters pause in bewilderment.

Snow leaned toward Krall. "Do you see what I'm seeing?"

"Yeah. I'm beginning to put some of the pieces together, like how the fuckers get around," responded Krall.

"Looks like our Centurion friends have a hand in it," said Roth.

Hicks didn't wait for anyone. He started forward, his teeth clenched in spitting anger.

The Centurion leader, Galor Skul emerged onto a stone balcony. "What do you want here?" His voice echoed throughout the courtyard.

Hicks stopped and stared up at the Centurion on the balcony. "Where is she?"

"Where is who?"

"Don't fucking play games with me, you piece of shit. I know you have her. We traced her PDT here."

"Oh, you must mean the human female. I'm afraid she didn't make it."

Hicks blinked several times and clenched his teeth again. He felt his blood start to boil, felt the adrenalin start to kick in…His mind went completely blank as he raised both pulse rifles and let loose.

Centurions went down. Aliens tore away from their handlers and ran to attack. Snow, Roth and Krall flanked Hicks and open fired. The Centurions returned fire at the team.

Newt watched the carnage below, praying that no one on her team was killed on her account. She shook her head, unable to believe how stupid she had been. The Centurions couldn't be trusted. Her gut instinct had been to ignore the distress message. But her morals always seemed to get in the way of her best judgment. Now her and her team were fucked.

The shooting continued and the team took refuge behind a large stone statue. When most of the Centurions and aliens in the vicinity were dead, Hicks came out from behind the statue and moved toward the balcony where Galor Skul was shaking his fist down at him in anger. Hicks braced himself and launched two grenades, one after the other.

Galor Skul reacted too slowly and the grenades detonated at his feet. His crumpled body flew into the air.

Hicks was seething with anger and he was unable to control it. He didn't want to believe that Jorden was dead. He lowered his head and tried to control the sudden onslaught of emotions. As the team continued to shoot at the Centurions and aliens still pouring from the compound, Hicks turned and wearily walked back toward the dropship. From the corner of his eye he saw an alien charge in his direction. Without looking, he raised his pulse rifle to the right and fired. The alien collapsed at his feet and he stepped over it.

Newt saw Hicks start to head for the ship. She struggled with her bounds, pulling on the chains imbedded in the stone wall. The stake started to loosen. She pulled harder, shaking the chains back and forth until the stake finally dislodged from the wall. The force knocked Newt backward, off her feet. She quickly got up and jumped toward the window opening. "Hicks!"

Hicks picked up the sound and he whirled around toward its source. The sight of her in the window of the tower made Hicks frown and take several steps forward. She was alive.

Newt yelled out again. "Hicks!"

Hicks moved toward the tower. When he arrived at the foot, he began to scale it effortlessly, grabbing the jutting stones and using them as foot holds. Newt moved back as Hicks reached the window and climbed through the opening. She threw herself at him, squeezing her arms around his neck. Hicks embraced her tightly, elated that she was still in one piece. Then he released her and looked her over. She looked fine except for a gash above her left eye. And her long hair was gone. It had been cut short in uneven patterns just below her ears. He didn't dwell on it for long and drew his revolver. He carefully shot off the long chain attached to the cuffs on Newt's wrists. Then they headed for the window.

When Hicks looked down, there were three aliens scaling the wall and heading up toward them. Another movement caught his eye. On the balcony where he had killed the head honcho, three Centurions were setting up something that looked to him like a rocket launcher. "Shit!" He touched his communicator. "Krall, get the team the fuck out of here. The dropship's about to get torched."

"What about you?"

"Just go for now. We'll find some other way out." Then he backed away from the window, pushing Newt back with him, just as the first alien reached it. He raised his pulse rifle and blew it away.

"Come on!" yelled Newt. She dragged him out the door.

They raced down the corridor and Newt quickly glanced through the small windows of each door to check the other rooms for Packer. Then she found him inside the third room. She kicked the door open and grabbed Hicks' revolver. As Hicks dealt with the advancing aliens, Newt shot the chain holding Packer.

Then the three of them sprinted down the corridor. A spiral staircase led down to the main floor and they ran out the back door. They found themselves out in a street.

Centurion citizens scrambled to get away from the humans that had suddenly appeared out of the compound where the sounds of shooting came from. Then they screamed and ran as Centurion guards came running up the street, firing their weapons.

Hicks raised his pulse rifle and mowed them down. Then the rifle was empty. He tossed it on the ground and grabbed Newt's hand. "Time to go."

They ran down the street. Newt turned to look down one of the alleys and saw a vehicle with its side door hanging open. "Hicks."

Hicks stopped in his tracks and turned.

"That's a Centurion Cruiser," said Packer. "Nobody knows how to fly those damned things."

Hicks ignored him and ran down the alley to the vehicle. Packer followed Newt. She jumped in first, sitting in the front passenger side and Hicks slid into the driver's seat.

"I'm telling you. It's useless," said Packer.

"Are you coming or not?" asked Newt impatiently.

"Oah, hell..." Packer jumped in back and Hicks pulled the door down, slamming it shut. "The controls are excessively complicated. Believe me, I've tried before."

Hicks focused his eyes on the controls, studying them intently. Then he started pushing buttons and the Cruiser came to life.

Packer stared with his mouth open. "How'd you do that?"

The Centurion Cruiser lifted several feet off the ground and moved forward. The moment it cleared the corner, a Centurion Patrol pulled up behind them. Then three others appeared.

Packer glanced through the back window. "Uh oh. We've got company. Four Centurion Patrols."

Hicks made an abrupt left to avoid colliding with a freighter in the process of taking off. One of the Patrols didn't react in time and collided right into it. Both the Patrol and the freighter exploded. The three remaining Patrols started shooting double rays of lasers at the Cruiser that swerved and dipped to avoid the blasts.

Newt found the control for the rear cannon and started hitting it. A blast from the Cruiser's rear cannon struck the closest Patrol.

"Good shot," praised Hicks. He took the Cruiser around the corner of a building. The two remaining Patrols came around fast, and at very close range continued to blast at them with lasers. Hicks thought fast and swerved the Cruiser into heavy oncoming traffic.

Packer's jaw dropped. "What're you, nuts?"

Hicks ignored Packer and concentrated ahead.

"You think they're pissed off about us killing their leader?" asked Newt.

"Why don't you roll down the window and ask them?" responded Hicks.

Hicks sent the Cruiser into a dive and Packer banged his head on the ceiling. "Oww! Watch it!" he rubbed his sore head.

Horns blew as vehicles swerved out of Hicks' way. Behind him, the Patrols tried to copy his movements. One of them reacted too late and smashed head on with an oncoming transport vehicle. Another huge explosion resulted.

Hicks frowned. "How the fuck do you get outta this crazy town?"

"Should we stop for directions?" asked Newt.

The remaining Patrol bashed against the side of the Cruiser, trying to push them into the nearby trees. Hicks returned the favor by bashing them back. The Patrol skimmed over the top of the trees. Then it moved behind them, firing the lasers again. Suddenly Hicks hit the brakes and the Patrol rear ended them with tremendous force. Before the others could recover, Hicks sped up and then hit the brakes again, and again. The Centurion Patrol smashed into their back end and then fell behind. And then the Cruiser started smoking.

"Uh oh," said Hicks. "We're going down."

The Cruiser started to drop from the sky. The Patrol tailed close behind it. Hicks held the wheel, trying to keep the Cruiser's nose up. Up ahead was a grassy field. The back end touched down first as the Cruiser skidded forward and then turned sideways before it started rolling. When it finally stopped moving, the hatch flew open. Hicks, Newt and Packer staggered out of it and scrambled to get away. They managed to throw themselves on the ground just as it exploded.

The Patrol circled above them. Then all of a sudden the Judgement's dropship appeared out of nowhere and launched a missile at the Patrol. It exploded in mid-air and the three on the ground had to duck again.

When the flames in the air died, the dropship touched down and the ramp came down. Krall emerged, pulse rifle in hand.

"Looks like the cavalry arrived just in time," said Newt. She got up and then the world started spinning around in her head.

Hicks had started to get up when Newt suddenly fell and he caught her before she hit the ground. He lowered her on the grass and when he removed his hand from behind her, he looked at the bright red blood on it. He turned her and saw the bloody wound on her lower back. "Fuck…"

 

Chapter 8 - The Judgement Dropship​

Hicks carried Newt inside the dropship. He laid her down on the floor and gently turned her over. The back of her shirt was a bloody mess. He unsheathed a knife from his boot and sliced the material so he could see what had happened to her. Had she been shot? There was so much blood he didn't know where the wound was. He gently began to feel around her lower back with his fingertips. That's when he came across something. It was a thick piece of metal. It had either come from the exploding Cruiser or the Patrol the dropship shot down.

Hicks looked up at Packer, Krall, Snow and Roth. "Get us back to the ship fast or we're gonna lose her."

The four Colonial Marines jumped into action.

Hicks felt around the area where the metal was embedded. He wasn't sure if it had fractured her spine or if it was just stuck in her muscle. His first instinct was to yank the thing out. But if he did, what if he caused more damage? He wasn't going to take that chance. He reached down for his communicator. "Bishop, do you copy?"

"Yes, I'm here," came the response.

"We've got a problem. Jorden's got a piece of metal stuck in her lower back. I think it's right up against her spine or in it, I'm not positive."

"What's her condition? Is she conscious?"

"No. She's out."

"Can you pull it out?"

"I want to, Bishop, but the dropship's moving and I don't trust myself to do it."

"Is she bleeding?"

"Yeah, there's fucking blood everywhere."

"That's a good sign."

Hicks frowned. "A good sign? Are you on overload or something, Bishop?"

Bishop went on to explain. "If the metal was embedded in her spinal cord, then there wouldn't be a lot of blood. Bleeding means that it's just embedded in her muscle tissue."

"That's all nice, but she's losing a lot of blood, man."

"We've got plenty of blood for her in Medical. I'll meet you in the docking bay."

The dropship shook as it left the planet's atmosphere and Hicks tried to keep himself and Newt from being tossed around. And then she stirred with a groan. She tried to turn around and cried out in pain. Hicks grabbed her hand and she squeezed it so hard he thought she'd crush it.

"Hicks…"

"Shhh…it's okay. You're gonna be all right. It's just a flesh wound."

"Did I…did I get shot?"

"No. It's a piece of metal. Must have buried itself into you when the Cruiser or the Patrol blew up."

"Hurts like hell."

"I know. We're heading back to the ship."

"Call Bishop. He'll know what to do."

"Already done that. He's waiting for us." Hicks sat cross-legged down on the floor in front of her. He knew he was going to have to keep her from moving. The dropship was going to get jostled quite a bit when it was lifted into the docking bay. "I'm gonna lift you up a little bit, okay?"

Hicks lifted her up under her arms and she cried out in pain while he quickly slid himself closer. Then he lowered her back down so that her chest was resting in his lap and her head and arms were hanging over his thigh. He held her firmly as the dropship shook again.

With every movement the ship made, Newt felt a blinding pain shoot up along her back. She continued to hold Hicks' hand and was comforted by his arm over her, trying to keep her from being tossed any further. And then everything went black again.

Bishop watched as the dropship was lifted into its resting place and the ramp came down. He immediately rolled the stretcher inside. With Hicks' help, they carefully lifted Newt up onto the stretcher. Within a matter of minutes they had her in Medical. Everyone was hovering around and Packer finally herded everyone except Hicks out the door.

Hicks helped Bishop cut Newt's clothes off so they could get to the wound easier. The sight of all that blood on her was making him so sick he felt like puking. It wasn't just the sight of blood that made him sick because he had seen his share in his lifetime, it was the sight of her blood. He didn't want her to die.

"Mr Hicks, give her something to make sure she stays knocked out. This is going to hurt."

Hicks grabbed an injection and quickly filled it with an appropriate amount of fluid. He stuck the needle into the vein on the back of her hand.

Bishop cleaned the blood away, exposing the area where the metal object was embedded. Then using a instrument that resembled pliers, he carefully and slowly began to pull the object out.

Hicks was shocked to see that the object was over four inches long. It had embedded itself in an angle. If it had gone in straight, it probably would have gone all the way through and out her stomach. She probably wouldn't have survived an injury like that.

"I'll need four bags of O negative," said Bishop, looking up at Hicks.

"Yeah, sure. Where is it?"

"It's in the cooler just left of the sink."

Hicks walked to the sink and found the cooler. He pushed the hair out of his face and read the labels. O negative. Four bags. One…two…three…four…He walked back to Bishop who was already fiddling with an IV to pump the blood back into her. "Is she gonna be all right?"

"She'll be fine. I just need to stitch her up and get this blood into her."

Hicks looked her over, lying naked and flat on her stomach. He ran his fingers through his hair again.

"You should get yourself cleaned up and rest. I can finish here by myself."

"I want you to call me when she comes out of it."

"I will."

Hicks headed for the door, glancing back one last time before walking out.

Two days had passed and Newt was still out. On the third day, Hicks was pacing in his quarters like a caged tiger. He ran his fingers through his hair, messing it all up. What in the hell had he gotten himself into? He had worked so hard to detach himself from everyone he had ever known, ever cared about. Now he was right back where he didn't want to be, caring about people. Caring about Rebecca Jorden. He should have just left after he had given her the location she had been looking for. But, noooo…he had to stay and get involved in her little world of bug hunting. Not to mention the self-torture he put himself through just so he could look into her eyes. And even worse, what if the authorities caught up with him? He had no intention of spending any more time in prison.

Then his communicator chirped. "Bishop here. Rebecca's awake. She's asking for you."

"On my way." Hicks rushed out of his quarters.

Newt felt like she had been run over by a freighter. Bishop had told her she was going to recover quickly and she had every reason to believe him. The metal object had been thin and hadn't done that much damage to her muscle tissue. But he recommended bed rest for the next few days. Yeah, sure. She'd be up tomorrow. She'd had worse injuries in the past and nothing prevented her from doing her job. A little pain never hurt anyone…it just made you sharper.

She wanted to roll onto her back, but Bishop had propped up a pillow behind her so she was forced to stay lying on her right side. The door chirped. "Who is it?"

"Hicks."

"Come in." The door automatically cycled open.

Hicks walked in and before anything else, his eyes fell on the alien queen at the far end of the room. He forced himself to look away and turned to Newt on the bed. "How do you feel?"

"The bastards cut my hair. I've been shot, clawed, sprayed with acid blood, and punched until I saw stars, but cutting my hair…that really hurts."

Hicks grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to the bed. He straddled it backward and stared down at her. "It'll grow back."

"Light me a cigarette, please." she said.

Hicks reached into his pocket for his cigarettes. He pulled out two and lit both of them at the same time. He brought one of them down to her lips. She sat up slightly, holding the sheet up with one hand and the cigarette in the other.

"Thanks for coming after me, Hicks."

"No problem."

"You could have gotten yourself and my squad killed."

"Sorry, but I wouldn't leave anyone with those fuckers." He looked away, taking a drag from his cigarette. "Especially not someone I care about."

Newt understood him. She would have done the same thing for him or for anyone in her crew. Risking the entire crew for just one, it didn't make sense to many people, including her superiors, but it made perfect sense to her. And she had done it many times…But something else was on her mind at the moment. "How did you know the Centurions had control over the aliens?"

"I learned during one of my many battles with the Centurion assholes."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about it?"

"I did, Jorden. I told my superiors. They didn't wanna believe me. They didn't wanna believe me about anything I said about the Centurions, so I said fuck it, no more mister nice guy."

"It explains a lot of things, like how the aliens get around."

"That's right. The Centurions plant the eggs wherever they go. It's a miracle that none of them have been able to plant some on Earth." Hicks didn't want to think about what would happen if just one of those aliens got loose on Earth.

"They'd never pass the ship scanning devices in security."

"I'm sure they'll find a way eventually."

"But how do they control the aliens?" asked Newt.

"Some kind of mind control. It's how the head honcho communicates with the queens and how the queens communicate with their hives."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I was there. I saw it."

"Maybe the big bastard's controlling the Centurions, too."

"It's possible."

"I'll have to contact HQ and tell them what's going on."

"It'd be a good idea, yes. But that's if they believe you. If they don't, then your credibility is shot to hell."

"We'll be at war with the Centurions again."

"No doubt."

"Are you going to re-enlist and help fight?"

"How about never? Is never good for you?"

Newt ignored his sarcasm. "The Colonial Marines need more people like you, people with leadership skills."

Hicks frowned and got up, walking away. "I fight my own battles. I'm not re-enlisting."

"Your first hand knowledge of both the Centurions and the aliens is vital to the cause."

Hicks turned back around to face her. "Right, like those sanctimonious HQ assholes really give a shit about my knowledge. I told you they fucked me over and I'm not risking my life for them. I fight for myself." He edged closer to the dead queen, staring up at it. Jorden was right. The more he hung out in front of it, the less he began to fear it. But then again, he knew this particular queen was dead. A live queen was another matter.

Newt watched as he slowly stepped up to alien queen and finally reached up to touch it's chin. He pulled his hand back as if he had expected the queen to come back to life.

Hicks backed away, still staring up at the queen. "Besides, the only reason I'm here is to help knock off the head honcho and for the gold. You got me started on this little side mission and I plan to see it through." He turned toward Newt. "We are still going, aren't we?"

"Yes, we're still going. I owe it to my team. The military doesn't pay enough to live a fruitful life after the service."

"Don't I know it."

"How did you manage to get by after you quit?"

"I got paid for my services."

Newt knew he meant that he got paid by people who wanted certain Centurions killed. Contract killing. It left a bad taste in her mouth because she still couldn't believe that he was capable of doing such a thing. And then she remembered that night at the nightclub, where he slaughtered six Centurions without an ounce of remorse. He was still a very dangerous man. He just didn't look very dangerous right at that moment.

"This mission may prove to be the last for you," added Hicks. "Is the gold worth it, Jorden?"

"It's not just the gold. The fact that it's there is just a bonus. Someone has to put a stop to these aliens. I plan to eliminate the top dog. And if what you say is true, that he communicates telepathically to the queens, then without him I'm hoping the queens will be unable to continue functioning. They'll be easy targets."

"That's if they don't hatch another one."

"Then I'll just have to find him and kill him too."

"You'd have to wipe out the entire species and there's never any guarantee that you've gotten all of them. The universe is a big place."

"I'm going to keep doing this until I die, Hicks. I have nothing else going on in my life."

Hicks stared at her. "Nothing? No plans to start a family?"

"Why should I? You didn't."

Touché. Hicks watched as she tried to reach behind her back, squirming against the pillow there. "What're you trying to do?"

"I've got an itch and I can't reach it. Could you, please?"

Hicks walked to the side of the bed and sat down. He moved the pillow out of the way, exposing her bare back. The sheet was lying just below her stitches. Now that all the blood was gone, Hicks was starting to see all the exposed flesh and it made his groin ache.

Newt rolled more on her stomach as Hicks started to slowly scratch her back, starting at her shoulders, where her scars from the queen were. "That's perfect," she said. "A little lower."

Hicks reluctantly scratched further down. He kept moving down until he reached a spot right above her stitches. "Bishop did a good job. The scar probably won't even be noticeable."

"One more scar isn't going to matter."

Hicks wanted to push the sheet down to expose her round behind. Then another image crept up into his mind, where he was burying his face between her legs. He had every intention of following through with that one, but now was not the time. After awhile her slow steady breathing led him to believe that she had fallen asleep. He ran his hand up along her back, liking the feel of her soft flesh under his fingers. Then he moved to get up.

"Don't go," said Newt in barely a whisper. "Stay with me." She reached behind her for his hand and tugged at him.

Hicks thought about leaving anyway, but she urged him down on the bed with her. So he stayed. He removed his boots and slid under the sheet behind her, with his clothes still on. She had nothing on. He didn't trust himself to behave if he took anything off, not that it really made a difference, even with his clothes on. He was still hot for her. And then she made matters worse for him. She took his arm and pulled it around herself, then wiggled back against him.

"Lights off," she said quietly. The lights slowly dimmed.

Hicks was uncomfortable. His arm was resting across her breasts, her butt was pressed against his cock and her short frazzled hair was in his face. Her scent drifted into his nostrils, fueling his already rampant desire. And then he remembered something. He glanced over his shoulder at the alien queen, self-conscious of its presence. "Can't you go take a walk somewhere?" he asked it. Then he turned back around to bury himself in Jorden's scent, to torture himself some more.

Newt woke up with a jolt. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at Hicks. His eyes were closed. He was asleep. The last thing she remembered was her asking him to stay. She had felt him slide in bed behind her. How was it that she was facing him now? She must have rolled over at some point. That explained the dream she had of an alien landing on her and ripping into her lower back with its claws. She had felt the pain in the dream.

She watched Hicks sleep. Then she glanced down between them and smiled when she realized he still had his clothes on. He wasn't taking any chances, was he? The temperature in the room was cool, yet his teeshirt was nearly soaking in sweat. She snuggled up against him, pressing her face against his throat just below his chin, inhaling his masculine scent. He stirred and groaned in protest. Newt wanted Hicks to wake up. She wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to touch her. So she reached for his teeshirt and started to pull it up.

Hicks stirred again and then slowly came awake. He remembered where he was and realized that Jorden was trying to get him out of his teeshirt. Was she dreaming? When he looked down and met her open eyes, he knew she was wide awake. She wanted his teeshirt off and he struggled to get it off, tossing it in the air somewhere behind him. She reached up to bring her hand behind his head, running her fingers through his hair. Hicks lowered his lips to hers. He kissed her slowly.

And then Newt started to laugh…

Hicks was mortified. "What's so funny?" Was she laughing at the way he kissed her?

"I'm just waiting for Bishop to interrupt us again."

"Don't even think it, Jorden." Well at least she wasn't laughing at him.

But Bishop didn't interrupt them this time.

Hicks glanced down between them, at the way her nipples grazed his chest. Oh, man…this wasn't going to take very long. He was about to lose it in his shorts. "What about your back? I don't wanna hurt you."

"I don't care," said Newt as she reached down to squeeze the bulge in his pants.

Hicks groaned and started undoing his pants. He rolled onto his back and slid them off along with his boxers under the sheet. Then he sat up and leaned his back against the headboard.

Feeling the intense pain in her lower back, Newt gave a grunt and lifted herself up on her knees, tossing the sheet away. He reached for her and helped her straddle his lap. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Hicks wasn't sure where to put his arms. He didn't want to cause her any further pain. He opted to touch her breasts and moved his hands there. He felt like a teenager, not knowing what the hell to do with a girl. Damn, if she didn't stop stroking him like that, he was going explode. Unable to control the urge any longer, Hicks slid himself inside her with a groan.

Newt cried out in both pleasure and pain, which caused Hicks to pause. "No, don't stop…" she told him.

Hicks placed his hands on her hips and slowly moved her at his desired speed. Minutes later he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold it. He hadn't been with a woman in a long time. She wrapped her arms tighter around his neck and when he felt her internal muscles tightening around him, he knew she was there. And that's when he blew his load.

Sometime later, Newt was lying on her stomach in bed. She watched Hicks slide his pants on. She pointed at the alien queen. "Did you do that on purpose?"

Hicks turned to where she was pointing. His teeshirt was hanging over the alien queen's face. He remembered tossing the teeshirt over his shoulder a few hours ago. "No, but I kinda like her better that way." Hicks walked to the queen and reached up to retrieve his teeshirt. The queen looked down at him. She had no eyes that he could see, but it looked as if she was looking at him, mocking him…daring him to stick his hand in her mouth. He started to reach inside.

"She may be dead, but she still bites," warned Newt.

Hicks turned to look at Newt.

"Her teeth cut like a hot knife through butter.

He turned back to the queen and touched her teeth, unable to stop himself from doing it. His fingertip had barely touched one jagged dagger and it quickly started to bleed.

"I warned you."

Hicks stared up at the queen and reached down to wipe the blood from his finger on his pants. He remembered being this close to a queen once. But he closed his eyes and shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind. He didn't want to go there.

"So what happened to the other fourteen ways?" asked Newt

"Fourteen ways?"

"You said not too long ago that you were going to fuck me fifteen different ways."

"I was seriously pissed at you when I said that."

"And you're not anymore?"

"No."

"So you're going to deny me the pleasure just because you're not pissed at me anymore?"

Hicks walked to the side of the bed and crouched down. He reached up with a smile and affectionately touched her face. "That's all you get for now, princess. If you start popping stitches, Bishop will hang me by my nuts in the docking bay."

Newt groaned in protest. She didn't want Hicks to leave. "Where're you going?"

Hicks stood up again. "I'm gonna go see what everyone's doing. You know, when the cat's away, the mice will play."

Newt shook her head at his cliché. "Leave my team alone, Hicks. I told you I'm in charge."

"Then get your ass up and go find out for yourself." He walked toward the alien queen and sat down in the chair in front of it, leaning back and propping one leg over an armrest. "I'll stay here with the Cockroach Queen. Catch up on old times."

Newt laughed. "Don't tell me you're going to sulk."

"I don't sulk."

"You're doing it right now."

"No, I'm not." He looked down and picked at a thread on his pants.

"Whatever kind of look you're shooting for, you missed." She smiled but noticed that he was ignoring her now. Newt rolled out of bed and without an ounce of apprehension, she walked naked toward him. Her lower back was on fire, but she moved upright to prove to him that she could do it.

Hicks looked back up and watched her walking toward him. The sight of her made his groin start to sing to him again. She literally took his breath away. He knew his fate was sealed. He would crawl inside her heart and lose himself in her. His freedom to do as he pleased would be a distant memory. When she reached him, she buried her fingers in his hair and he pressed his face against her torso, inhaling her alluring scent. He wrapped his arms around her waist, careful not to apply too much pressure on her lower back.

Newt couldn't help herself. She wanted him so badly that it was killing her, but she knew that somewhere down the road, he'd end up breaking her heart. She could never get him to go back to her reality. He was too much of a lone wolf and one who liked to be in charge of his own destiny. He wasn't going to re-enlist with the USCMs. He wouldn't be able to take orders from anyone. Besides, he was still a wanted man. She didn't think she'd be able to clear his name easily. Once the mission was over and the gold was in their possession, Hicks would take his share and more than likely go his own way. Would it be another thirteen years before she'd ever see him again after that?

Lost in their own thoughts, they held each other for a long time.

 

Chapter 9 - Plato Sector​

The passengers of the Judgement came out of deep cryo-sleep, awaking slowly from the affects. The first one up was Hicks. He waited beside Newt's cryo-chamber as the others got up and headed for their lockers.

"How do you feel?" he asked her.

"Like I could sleep for a century."

"Roll over. Let me take a look." When Newt rolled on her side, Hicks lifted her teeshirt and lowered her boxers slightly to inspect the stitches. Everything still looked good. "I think you should stay on the ship when we go down there."

Newt pulled away from him and sat up. "Yeah, right, like that'll be happening." She got out of the cryo-chamber and walked away. The pain was unbearable, but she didn't want him to know that.

Hicks could tell she was in pain. But he knew that arguing with her was going to be pointless. She was going to do what she wanted to do and he wouldn't be able to change her mind.

In the mess hall, sitting at the head of the table, Newt looked at each of her people as she briefed them on the plan. Corporal Packer, Corporal Krall, Private Snow, Private Roth, Private Cole, Private Shale and Private Gibson. Bishop sat at the other end of the table.

"I don't get it," Snow spoke up. "If there's nothing else on the planet except bugs, then why can't we just shoot a couple of nukes down there and blow them all to hell?"

"The nukes won't work."

Everyone turned to look at Hicks, who had been sitting at the other table, leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up on the tabletop. He was casually smoking a cigarette.

"How do you know?" Packer asked him.

"I've been here before," said Hicks nonchalantly. "I tried nuking the place. Didn't work."

Bishop decided to elaborate since Hicks wasn't volunteering any further information. "From what I gathered after I scanned the planet, there's a power source down there that's feeding some sort of electro-magnetic shield that will more than likely prevent nuclear weapons from penetrating the atmosphere."

"They detonate as they skip over the atmosphere," added Hicks.

"Anyway," continued Newt. "With that in mind, we have to go in and take care of business like we do best. When Bishop scanned the planet he was also able to pinpoint the spot with the highest concentration of life forms. Busy little buggers are protecting something. Our goal is to find it and terminate it. Any bugs we kill along the way are added bonuses."

"What're they protecting?" asked Shale, the dropship pilot.

Newt looked toward Hicks and everyone else turned to him as well.

Hicks found himself the center of attention once again. "The king."

There was silence for a moment until Packer put in his two cents. "See? I knew Elvis was still alive. He was abducted by ETs two hundred and fifty years ago."

Some of the others laughed. Hicks rolled his eyes and looked away, shaking his head These morons had no idea what they were up against. It sort of reminded him of when Ripley had been trying to describe the aliens to his squad back when they were headed for LV-426. Everyone had joked about it…and they were now all dead. Except him. And when the last squad he had been in charge of had gone down to the planet they were now orbiting, they were all wiped out as well. Except him. For some unknown reason or circumstance, he always seemed to survive. Always the last of his squad.

Hicks stared at Jorden's people as he dragged on his cigarette. He didn't see how any of them were going to survive down there. If the drones didn't get them first, then the big bastard would bury himself in their puny minds and they'd let themselves be sacrificial sheep. It had almost happened to him and he had almost been forced to do something he didn't want to do. But he had fought it tooth and nail and the fucking monster didn't like it. Hicks wasn't looking forward to dealing with that shit again.

Newt interrupted his thoughts. "Any last words of advice, Hicks?"

"Yeah. Don't let the cocksucker get in your head…or you're fucked."

The dropship flew through yellow tinted clouds. The air contained traces of sulfur, but it wasn't enough to cause any damage to human lungs. But long-term exposure would cause a chronic cough, so the team was equipped with a small portable oxygen tank, along with the rest of their typical apparatus. More things to weigh them down.

The team was securely seated inside an APC. Hicks didn't move his head, but his eyes shifted to take in the full interior of the Armored Personnel Carrier. He hadn't been in one for quite a few years and this one had a few upgrades he was unfamiliar with. But it wasn't important. His thoughts drifted to the mission ahead and what they were about to face.

Newt was seated opposite Hicks. She watched him visually inspect the interior of the APC. Was he assessing the durability of the vehicle? She already knew that he wasn't satisfied with the capability of her team. He hadn't said it directly, but she knew he thought it. His green eyes shifted to look into hers and she shivered involuntarily. Only an hour ago, before they prepared to board the APC and the dropship, they had been going at it like rabbits. She could still taste him on her lips. When he gave her a reserved smile, she felt her cheeks heat up and she turned away, fighting the urge to smile back at him.

Shale's voice came over the comm. "Mega-hive up ahead. I'm not picking up any movement on the motions."

Newt turned to Hicks for a possible explanation.

"He knows we're coming," said Hicks. "They're just silently plotting their method to ambush us."

"Is that what happened when you were down here the last time?" asked Newt.

"Yeah. Good times."

Newt wished he'd stop with the sarcasm. She glanced around at her team, their faces turned in her direction. They were all going to count on her. She had faith in them, even if Hicks didn't. They had been through hell and high water together. They had state of the art fire power. One shot could blow an alien to smithereens. They had plenty of ammo, enough to kill thousands. They were going in and blowing the fuck out of anything that came at them. End of story.

The dropship touched down fifteen kilometers away from the target area. The plan had been to keep the dropship safe and out of the way because it was their only means back to the Judgement. Shale, the dropship pilot, joined the others in the APC. The dropship ramp came down and Bishop drove the APC out. Behind them the ramp lifted back up and the dropship was empty and secure. The APC made its way through the rough terrain on the planet known only as Q-2008.

Hicks was lost in his thoughts again. There were no colonies on this planet. The terraformers had yet to even reach this section of space. Only a small number of USCM teams had ever made it out this far and the presence of the aliens prevented them from landing on Q-2008. The only team to ever set foot on the planet was his team and that was only because of a distress signal on a freighter that had crashed. The freighter had been carrying an undisclosed amount of gold that had been mined from a nearby planet. Hicks and his team had seen it. And they had had every intention of taking it because the crew onboard the freighter had disappeared. Not a sole in sight, as if they had disappeared into thin air. Then Jones was picking up movement, the signal was coming from a nearby rocky hill. They went in to investigate, hoping to come across the survivors of the crashed freighter. But they were ambushed by a horde of aliens.

FLASHBACK – On Q-2008

Hicks woke up to the sounds of screaming. When he was able to focus, he saw that he was encased in alien resin and he was unable to move. He saw others of his team in the same predicament. To his repulsion, some of them had facehuggers wrapped around their heads. They were being impregnated. The eggs in the center of the small chamber opened and he saw more facehuggers crawl out in search of hosts. He wanted to scream, but the slightest sound would alert one of the things and it would attach itself on his face and he wasn't going to be able to do anything about it.

He closed his eyes to the horror before him, unable to witness the suffering of his squad. He tried to control his panic by slowing his breathing. Every time he heard a scream, he cringed, trying not to focus on who it was that had screamed. But he couldn't take it anymore. He was about to lose his mind…The sound of heavy footfalls drew his attention and he slowly opened his eyes.

A queen was slowly walking around the chamber, inspecting her eggs, inspecting the impregnated hosts. Facehuggers scrambled to get out of her way as she moved about. Her attention was drawn to the only host that had yet to be impregnated and her children were deliberately avoiding him. She cocked her head in wonder and listened for her instructions. The Divine One wanted him untouched. 'BRING HIM TO ME.' Those were her new instructions.

Hicks felt the panic start to rise as the queen turned in his direction. "Shit…" She was walking toward him. He tried to move his arms, his shoulders, his legs, anything. Nothing but his head moved. He felt like he was encased in cement. He'd clock her hard in the forehead just for a moment of self-satisfaction that he'd cause her some measure of pain before she got the chance to rip his face off.

And then she was in front of him, bending her massive head at an even level to his. Hicks clenched his teeth, smelling the queen's foul breath as it breathed heavily in his face. Gobs of clear spittle dripped from her teeth and chin. She hissed menacingly and Hicks closed his eyes as she moved even closer to him, sniffing him. His courage evaporated and he fought back the tears that threatened. This was it. He was dead. He turned his face away and prayed.

The queen parted her massive jaws and struck with her inner jaws. It wasn't a lethal blow, but enough to render the being incapable of functioning temporarily.

Hicks felt the blow to the side of his head and he imagined his brains being scrambled inside his shattered skull. He felt light-headed and dizzy, just about ready to pass out…or maybe die…he felt something hot dripping down the side of his face and turned his head to see blood on his shoulder. Yup…he was definitely dying…

But why was he still seeing the nightmare around him? He had momentarily blacked out and when consciousness came back, he was no longer encased in the resin. The queen had him by the throat and was dragging him facing up on the ground like a rag doll. His eyes widened as facehuggers scrambled over his body and scurried around the queen's moving legs. They weren't attacking him. For some reason, the facehuggers were leaving him alone.

The right side of his head was pounding and he closed his eyes to the severe pain. He thought the blow to his head would have killed him. Or maybe he was dead and this was what Hell was like…His own personal Hell. He'd be spending all eternity being shredded by aliens, attacked and impregnated by facehuggers, chestbursters breaking through his ribcage, queens slamming their inner jaws at his face…good times ahead, he thought sarcastically.

The queen dragged Hicks into another room. It was dark, except for a light coming from a hole in the ceiling somewhere. Hicks heard multiple hisses around him. Although he couldn't see them, he knew there were more queens in the immediate area. He was fucked…he was totally fucked…he could still feel the facehuggers crawling over him and he was repulsed. Then the queen unceremoniously dropped him on his back and walked away.

Hicks called up whatever strength he had left and slowly managed to sit up. He reached up to the right side of his head, felt the broken skin and he knew the bitch had cracked his skull. But it hadn't been a lethal blow. Why didn't she kill him? Why weren't the facehuggers impregnating him? Then he remembered his flashlight. He ripped the device from his shoulder shield and activated it.

As Hicks panned the light around the room, all he could see were wall to wall queens, drones and facehuggers. They were all surrounding him, in a huge circle, maintaining a distance of about ten yards from him. All of them were facing him, even though he couldn't exactly tell if they were looking at him because they had no eyes.

What were they all waiting for? Why didn't they kill him? Despite his dooming predicament, he thought to make a joke. "I suppose none of you can speak English."

"I SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE."

Hicks stood up and turned around, trying to find the source of the voice. But all he saw were the queens and the drones, hissing at him, watching him like he were a gazelle about to be attacked by a lion.

"NONE OF MY CHILDREN CAN SPEAK TO YOU."

Hicks spun around again and then had to stop because he was making himself dizzy. "Where are you?"

"YOU WILL SEE ME WHEN THE SUN RISES."

"Who are you?"

"I AM THE DIVINE ONE."

Hicks suddenly realized that the voice was in his head. It was a deep, resonating voice that made chills run up and down his spine.

"YOU WILL BE MY PAWN. YOU WILL TAKE MY CHILDREN TO YOUR HOMEWORLD."

"Get out of my head, you fuck!!"

"YOU WILL SEE TO IT THAT THEY SPREAD THROUGHOUT YOUR GALAXY."

Hicks raised his hands to his head and fought to get the voice out. He felt himself start to lose control of his mind. The voice wanted to control him. He looked around at the grotesque faces of the creatures that surrounded him. Their exo-skeletons gleaming as the sun began to peak over the hole in the ceiling. Hicks looked up at the hot, blinding sun. It started to illuminate the chamber. He turned off his flashlight and jumped backward when several facehuggers crawled passed him, just a few inches away from his feet.

"TURN AND LOOK AT ME."

The voice was back in his head. Hicks turned around slowly, his eyes panning around, not sure what he was expecting to see. And then he saw it. The biggest goddamned alien he had ever laid eyes on. It was perched on a ledge in the mammoth cave. He couldn't tell if it was just sitting there or if it was suspended there because he could see appendages running from the thing's back to various holes in the cave walls. They looked like tubes, but he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure about anything that was happening at the moment or what he was seeing.

The king alien was five times larger than a queen. It had a similar head with the elaborate crown stretching out behind it. But each point ended in a horn, much like a Stegosaurus. It lacked the extra hands the queen had, but the sinewy arms and hands that it did possess were enormous. The thing could probably pick up a human by wrapping its claws around their waist.

Hicks stared up at the creature. It blew out steam from two sets of nostrils, even though he couldn't pinpoint where they were on its ugly face. The king waved one hand and the queens and drones backed away, breaking up the circle. Hicks raised his hand to his forehead and massaged his temples. The throbbing ache ran down to the backs of his eyes. He closed his eyes to ward off the nausea that had suddenly materialized…but it was too late. He pitched forward on his hands and knees and puked repeatedly on the floor. When he finally looked up, he was staring at a facehugger. For a moment he thought the thing was going to attack him, but it was simply being curious before it scrambled away. Hicks puked again and again. He was puking so hard that blood gushed out of his nose.

"YOU WILL OBEY ME. YOU WILL TAKE MY CHILDREN TO YOUR HOMEWORLD."

Hicks felt weak. His mind was slipping away. Yes…his children…take them to Earth…No, get out of my head….You can't fight it…It's taken control of you…You have to obey…

"THERE. YOU SEE? IT IS EASIER TO SUBMIT THAN TO FIGHT."

Hicks stood up, wiping the bile from his mouth and the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. He stared up at the king. Yes…I will obey…Tell me what to do…Even as the negative thought passed through his mind, his hand automatically went down to feel his belt. He counted…one…two…three…He had three M40 Grenades. With as little movement as possible, he pulled them off his belt.

"TAKE MY CHILDREN. THEY WILL FOLLOW YOU."

Yes…take the demon spawn to Earth…they'll spread throughout the planet in a matter of months and then it's Adios humanity…Hicks clenched his teeth and fought to gain control over his actions. Then before any of the surrounding creatures knew what was happening, he had thrown an M40 Grenade in the alien king's direction and then threw the other two, one to his left and the other to his right. Then he spun around and ran. The resulting explosions caused fist-sized stones to rain down from the ceiling of the cave.

The voice continued to speak into his head, telling him to stop and return. No fucking way…The presence of the voice meant only one thing. The big bastard was still alive. Hicks ran and ran until he was in the chamber where he had woken up. He froze in his tracks, seeing what remained of his squad, their chests blown open. The sound of screeching and hissing behind him made him jump to action again. He searched the floor and found two pulse rifles. He had no sooner picked them up when two drones appeared. He raised the rifles and fired both of them. Then Hicks scrambled to get out of the chamber…not knowing exactly where he was headed.

He was running through a corridor, turning on occasion to blow away the aliens coming after him. The voice in his head was furious at him…"Yeah, fuck you…fuck you!!" he shouted back at it. There was a light up ahead…daylight. He ran for it, knowing that he was functioning on pure adrenaline and nothing else.

When Hicks shot out of the cave opening, he looked back to see if he was being followed. Nothing. He ran for the dropship. The ramp was up. The ship still looked secure. He reached for the controls on his belt and fumbled with them, having to drop one of the pulse rifles. He turned back around. Still nothing following him. He pushed the button. The ramp started to come down. Before it was halfway down, Hicks jumped to grab the edge and he hauled himself up, pushing the button again to close it.

He quickly headed for the cockpit and moved into the pilot seat. The last time he had flown a dropship was back at the Academy. He fumbled with switches, remembering how to set the thing in motion. Luckily the Autopilot would do most of the flying and securing to the mother ship. Hicks didn't think he would be able to stay conscious.

The dropship took to the air and was soon being secured in the docking bay of the USCM ship. Hicks had passed out, completely unaware that his ship waited for him, waited for his instructions. There was no one to wake him. His entire squad had died on the planet below the orbiting ship.

END OF FLASHBACK

The sound of Bishop's voice on his headset brought Hicks back to the present.

"We're passing a downed freighter."

Hicks removed the bar holding him into his seat and stood up, having to bend slightly so his head wouldn't hit the ceiling of the APC. When he glanced out the side window, he saw the familiar sight of the freighter that had brought him and his squad down on the planet the last time.

Newt got out of her seat to join Hicks at the window. "Is that it? That's where the gold is?"

Hicks turned to look at her. "That's it."

"How much farther is the hive?"

"Up in that hill over there."

Newt moved away from Hicks and went up front to talk to Bishop. "See that hill over there? Park the APC a hundred yards from the opening. We'll file out and then I want you to seal yourself in here." Newt could feel Hicks coming up behind her and she glanced back at him. "And Bishop, if anything should go wrong, I want you to detonate the nuke we loaded onboard. Is that clear?"

Bishop looked up at her. "My behavior inhibitor won't allow me to…"

"Then turn the goddamned thing off. If I give the order to detonate the nuke, you better fucking do it, Bishop."

Bishop glanced over at Hicks.

Hicks shrugged. "Don't look at me. She's in charge."

Bishop finally nodded. "Okay."

"Good," said Newt with satisfaction. She walked passed Hicks and went in back.

Hicks leaned on the APC dashboard and turned to Bishop. "I need you to do me a favor, Bishop. After we exit the APC, I want you to follow us. Just don't let the others know you're there. We'll be clearing a path as we go so you won't have to worry about any aliens attacking you."

"But Rebecca wants me to stay in the APC."

"I know she does. But I have a theory that I want you to check out. This is what I want you to do…" Hicks went on to give Bishop his instructions.

Newt went to the back of the APC. "Okay, kids, let's rock and roll." She watched as her squad got out of their seats and started arming themselves.

When Hicks joined them, he grabbed two pulse rifles, slinging one on each shoulder. He liked carrying two, he just needed to remember to keep them strapped to his shoulder so if he needed to free up a hand, he wouldn't be forced to drop one. He stuck half a dozen M40 grenades into loops on his utility belt. Then he watched as the others slipped on their heavy armor. The acid blood didn't penetrate the metal. Despite the fact that he had gotten sprayed by acid blood more times than he could remember, he just couldn't move in the heavy armor and opted to wear just the shoulder shields because of the camera attached to the left side.

Newt had no problem with the armor. She slipped her hands into a pair of armored gauntlets and flexed her fingers in them. Then she turned to Hicks who was casually leaning against the APC wall near the back exit. She walked toward him as she adjusted her chest shield.

Hicks watched as she walked up to him. "I don't know what we're going to find in there or what's going to happen, but if I start acting loopy, just shoot me."

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" asked Newt, not in the least bit amused by his statement.

Bishop's voice came on their headsets. "We've arrived."

With his announcement, the APC came to an abrupt halt. Hicks pushed the door open and the team filed out, one by one. Newt was about to jump out, but Hicks grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

He kissed her fiercely. When he released her, he looked into her blue eyes. "That's just in case one of us doesn't make it back alive."

Then Newt put her hands on his face and gave him a fierce kiss in return, pulling on his lower lip with her teeth. "That one was more of an incentive for both of us to make it back alive." Then she hopped out of the APC.

Hicks followed her out and turned to slide the APC door closed. He jogged behind her and then they both leaned against a boulder as the rest of the team proceeded forward.

They worked like a precision timepiece, each knowing the next move to make. None of them needed direction from their leader. They had done this a thousand times. The cave opening was up ahead. Gibson and Snow had the smartguns and they took the lead this time, instead of Newt. Hicks was behind them. Newt was behind Hicks, followed by Shale, Cole, Krall and Roth. Packer covered the rear. The cave was dark, so they switched on their lamps.

Hicks stared up ahead. He remembered that at the next bend was where his team had gotten ambushed seven years ago. His skin started to crawl at the memory. He raised one of the pulse rifles as they went around the corner and entered a large chamber.

The cave walls were covered in the strange alien architecture. They all knew what it was. They had seen it plenty of times. It was what the aliens used to camouflage themselves. The drones were hiding there. The team positioned themselves in a circle, backs to each other.

Newt stared at the walls. "Torches."

Seconds later, as the team shot their flamethrowers, the walls seemed to come alive. The camouflaged aliens jumped from their hiding places, trying to avoid the flames. But there was nowhere to go. When all movement ceased, the team ceased torching.

Newt spun around, looking up and around, checking for any kind of movement. "Are we clear?"

"Clear," Krall sounded off behind her.

"Yeah, it's clear," added Snow.

Newt turned to Packer, who was shaking his head as if trying to clear it. "Packer, are you okay?"

Packer stared blankly at her, his breath coming in gasps. It was as if he was looking through her, focusing on something else.

"Packer?"

"Yeah, yeah…I'm all right," he finally answered.

Hicks glanced over at him. "Hearing voices, Packer?"

"Blow me," responded Packer with malice as he turned away.

Hicks sidled up next to Newt and whispered to her. "The bastard's communicating with him."

"How do you know?" Newt whispered back.

"Look at him. He's flipping out."

"That's the way he always looks."

"I'm not fucking around, Jorden. He's got him."

Just then Packer spun around with a shout and let loose with his pulse rifle, spraying the chamber. Everyone ducked. Hicks threw himself over Newt. Then Packer turned and charged down another passageway with a hysterical cry.

As soon as Hicks rolled off her, Newt jumped up on her feet, feeling the pain in her lower back. "Packer!"

"Shit!" yelled Shale.

Newt turned and moved toward Shale who was crouched beside Gibson.

"He nailed Gibson. He's dead."

Not that she didn't believe the dropship pilot, but Newt reached down to check for a pulse at the side of Gibson's throat. No pulse. He was dead. When Hicks came to crouch down opposite her, Newt looked into his eyes. "Can that thing communicate with more than one at a time?"

"I have no idea."

"Are you hearing voices?" she asked him.

"No. Are you?"

"No." Newt stood up and turned to the rest of the team. "Do any one of you hear voices?"

They all shook their head negative.

"If anyone hears anything in their head, I wanna know immediately. Understood?"

Everyone agreed.

"What do we do about Packer, Lieutenant?" asked Krall.

"If he fires at us again, somebody shoot him in the leg."

Hicks reached down to Gibson and unhooked the harness holding the smartgun. He pulled the harness off and proceeded to hook himself up. It wasn't that he was being unsympathetic, but they needed the weapon more than Gibson did. He slung his pulse rifles on each shoulder again and then he moved in the direction Packer went.

"Hicks, wait!" She started to follow him.

The ceiling above the passageway Hicks ran into suddenly collapsed and Newt was forced to jump back out of the way. When the dust finally settled, everyone stared at the rock mound that had fallen, blocking the passageway.

Newt got on the com. "Hicks, can you hear me? Hicks…"

When the ceiling collapsed, Hicks threw himself to the ground and covered his head. Some of the rocks came down on him and he scrambled to get out of the way. Then he turned to look back. He was trapped. Newt's voice came on the com. "I hear you," he finally responded.

"Are you all right?" asked Newt with concern.

"Yeah, I'm all right. Looks like I'm gonna have to find another way out."

"We'll dig you out."

"You can go ahead and do that but I'm not sticking around."

"In case you haven't noticed, we haven't seen any queens. That means they're all congregating with the king. You can't go up against all of them by yourself."

"There can't be that many queens. I blew up a bunch of them last time I was here and without any hosts, they can't grow any more of them. Maybe they all died of old age."

"This is no time to be making jokes."

"Look, I'm going."

"Shit…" Newt was unhappy with the situation.

Hicks couldn't stand wearing the helmet. He fumbled with the strap and yanked the helmet off, tossing it away. He would have taken the rest of the head gear off, but he kept on the combo infrared lens and headset. "By the way, I sent Bishop on a little fact finding mission."

"You did what?" And now she was furious with the situation.

Hicks collected himself again and started down the passageway, keeping his eyes peeled for Packer and aliens.

Newt kept on talking. "Hicks, I told Bishop to stay in the APC. Things are already going downhill and I want him on that nuke if I give the order."

"Too late to debate it."

"Now what're we supposed to do?"

Hicks was tired of the conversation. "Can't hear you no more…you're breaking up…"

Newt sighed heavily with irritation. Then she turned to her people. "Start moving these rocks."

Hicks kept his flashlight on and panned it back and forth on the path ahead of him. So far he hadn't come across anything living, not even an ant. He knew the chamber with the king was directly ahead. He remembered it as if it was yesterday. Every step he took brought him closer. The last time he had been here, the alien king had been in his head. There was nothing now. No communication. Was it possible that he could only communicate with one human at a time? Were human brains a lot more complex than those of the aliens, or the Centurions, for that matter?

And then the familiar hiss of a queen reached his ears. Time to rock and roll. Only he wasn't ready. He was never ready when it came to alien encounters. He was scared shitless. Hicks lowered the infrared lens over his right eye and turned off the flashlight. Even though it was pitch black in the passageway, anything that moved would register on his lens a lot faster than the small beam of a flashlight would.

The first thing that came at him was a facehugger. Hicks lifted his pulse rifle and blew it away, opting not to waste any of the smartgun ammo on it. Two others scrambled toward him and he fired at them. Then the drones came. Three of them, one of them crawling upside down on the ceiling. Hicks sprayed them with the pulse rifle.

Nothing else came at him. Hicks slowly moved forward, his attention momentarily drawn to the ground as he avoided the pools of acid blood from the dead aliens. The infrared lens showed the pools in bright lime. He couldn't miss them.

And then he knew he was at the entrance of the large chamber. He leaned against the stone wall, trying to catch his breath. It wasn't as if he had been running. It was just the adrenaline and the fear, pumping his blood. He needed to get a hold of himself, needed to slow down and think clearly, or he was dead meat.

Hicks slowly leaned to look around the corner. He came face to face with the huge jaws of a queen. Her mouth gaped open and she struck out at him with her inner jaws. He dodged the blow at the last second and slammed himself on the opposite wall, letting loose with the smartgun. The queen squealed in anger and collapsed as Hicks continued to fire at her. "Bitch!"

Then out of nowhere, a drone grabbed him from behind. Hicks fought the alien's powerful grip and then it sank its teeth into his left arm. He howled in pain. Bent on getting himself out of the alien's grip, Hicks managed to turn around enough to get the muzzle of his pulse rifle right up against the creature's chest. Hicks pulled the trigger and lucky for him the recoil propelled him backward out of the alien's grip. He felt acid blood spray his legs and, ignoring the pain, he continued to shoot at the drone until it stopped moving.

Without thinking, Hicks ran into the center of the chamber and circled, his infrared lens picking up multiple images of queens and drones…and a solitary human figure among them. Packer…

Krall, Cole and Roth pulled rocks off the pile and tossed them to the side. But each time they thought they were making some headway, a new pile of rocks fell from the ceiling.

Newt kicked angrily at the rocks around her. "Goddammit! Hicks, will you answer me!" She had been trying to call him for the last ten minutes and he wasn't answering her. Either he had turned his com off or he was not answering because he was dead. She didn't want to think or believe in the latter. Then she turned to see Bishop walk in.

Bishop glanced around at the USCM team. "Did I miss anything?"

Newt waltzed up to him. "I thought I told you to stay in the APC!"

"I know, but Mr Hicks gave me instructions to…"

"I don't care what he said! He's not in charge! I am! I give the orders!" Bishop just stared at her. She felt bad for yelling at him, even though she knew he didn't have any feelings to hurt. "Bishop…" she said in a calmer tone. "Packer took off running and Hicks went after him. Then the ceiling collapsed and now we can't get to them."

"I found another way in."

"Another way in? Where?"

"This way."

They all followed Bishop out of the cave.

Hicks looked through the infrared lens, seeing Packer standing among the drones. He aimed the smartgun in that direction. "Packer, move away from them or I swear to God, you're going down with them!"

Packer didn't move and Hicks could tell he was looking right at him. He was swaying slightly, almost as if he were drunk. The king was communicating with him. Hicks wondered what the damned thing was telling him.

Then suddenly the lights came on. Hicks pushed the infrared eyepiece away and glanced around the ceiling of the mammoth cave. He could see the light sources and knew that they weren't a natural part of the cave. Someone had wired this cave. He knew it couldn't have been the aliens.

Speaking of aliens, Hicks glanced around the chamber. He counted three queens and some two dozen drones. Facehuggers scrambled in and around the legs of the queens. But none of them made any attempt to move toward him and they moved too fast for him to count them. Were they aware of the arsenal he carried and the damage it could do? Hicks glanced behind him to the spot where he knew the king was perched. And there he was, staring down at him.

"Hello, you fucking freak show…" Hicks raised the smartgun and was about to fire.

"YOU CANNOT KILL ME."

The voice was back in his head. Oh, yes I can, thought Hicks, I can kill you now. I can kill you anytime. Hicks raised the smartgun again.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS."

Hicks found himself dropping both pulse rifles, then the smartgun. No, fight it…fight it, goddammit…He backed away from the weapons now lying on the ground…Shit, he was dead meat…Two drones moved forward to retrieve the weapons on the ground. Hicks watched as they walked to what looked like a pool full of something black and tossed the weapons into the gook. Shit…shit…shit...No weapons. Now what, idiot? His attention went back to Packer, who was staring in his direction, his expression something animalistic, almost inhuman. He still held a pulse rifle, which he now tossed on the ground and slowly started walking toward Hicks.

"YOU WILL FIGHT TO THE DEATH. THE SURVIVOR WILL SERVE ME."

Hicks felt his sanity start to slip away. He felt himself going to that dark place in his mind…where he felt like killing everything…and everyone…He wanted to kill Packer and he was going to kill him. Yes, kill him…kill him and serve the Divine One.

The two men circled each other, removing their shielding, their headsets, anything that would obstruct their ability to fight. The queens and the drones looked on, jaws grinning in anticipation of the bloodshed. The one who didn't survive would be food for them. It was the Divine One's will.

Bishop pushed some bushes aside to reveal an old rusted iron door.

"Bishop, was there some kind of installation on this planet at one time?" asked Newt.

"Not that I know of." Bishop yanked on the door and it opened with a grind, iron against stone.

The interior on the other side of the door was dark. The team turned on their flashlights as they filed in one at a time, with Bishop in the lead. The small room was full of machinery.

Newt walked around, looking at the machines, shining her light on them. Then the lights came on. She glanced over and saw that Bishop had found the light switch. Then she turned back to what looked like a computer console. But the symbols on the keyboard were strange. "Bishop, take a look at this." She waited for him to come up beside her. "What are these symbols?"

Bishop looked at the symbols on the panel. It was also on some labels marking buttons and switches. "I'm not familiar with this at all."

Shale called out from a door panel that she managed to slide open. "Look what we have down here."

Newt and Bishop walked toward the doorway, followed by Krall, Cole, Roth and Snow. They all went down steps that looked as if they were floating in mid-air, nothing holding them together. The room they entered was huge and to everyone's surprise the machinery along all the walls was functioning. Blue, red and yellow lights indicator lights flickered on the instruments. More of the strange symbols marked the control panels.

What drew Bishop's attention sat at the center of the room. It was a globe about ten meters in diameter. It was slowly spinning. At the top of the globe was a disk where a dozen black cables extended from and disappeared into the ceiling.

Newt came up to stand beside Bishop. "What the hell is this?"

"I can only guess that this might be what's powering the electro-magnetic shield."

Newt spied another door at the other end of the room. "What was Hicks' fact finding mission for you?"

"He had his suspicions that there was a compound in the vicinity."

"How did he know that?"

"He didn't say. He just told me to look for something that didn't look like part of the environment."

"Get to work on trying to figure out what all this is. We're going to look for Packer and Hicks. Keep me posted if you find anything."

Bishop got to work on identifying the machinery while the others followed Newt toward the other door. She glanced at a panel on the side of the door and upon pushing a square panel, the door slid open.

Newt turned to Roth. "Get on the tracker."

Roth stepped in front of her and activated his motion tracker.

Hicks stared at Packer, who stared right back at him. They were circling each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. He glanced up at the alien king. The lights overhead were giving Hicks the ability to see more of the creature, more detail. He began to notice things about it that made him think that it wasn't a living thing, that it might be a machine. It never moved its head, never moved its jaws, never made a sound.

Then finally Packer made the first move, lunging at Hicks. Hicks had been distracted looking at the king and didn't see Packer coming until the last second. Packer had his hands on Hicks' throat, trying to cut off his air supply. Hicks brought his arms up between Packer's and tried to push them apart to dislodge Packer's hands. He strained, using every ounce of strength he had, while trying to keep himself from blacking out from lack of oxygen. One final push and Packer's hands were off him. Hicks slammed his forehead into Packer's face, bloodying his nose and then he fell backward.

Packer ignored the pain in his nose and picked Hicks up by the shirt. He made a fist and smashed Hicks twice in the face. Hicks collapsed on the ground again. He staggered on all fours. Packer came up and was about to kick him in the gut. Hicks grabbed his foot and twisted it, forcing Packer to the ground. Then he threw himself on Packer, punching him in the face, first with his left and then his right.

Packer reached for a rock and smashed it on the side of Hicks' head. Hicks saw stars as he fell. Packer punched him in the face again and Hicks tasted blood in his mouth. He slammed the heel of his hand into Packer's nose, feeling the crunching of bone. Packer howled in pain and scrambled away. Hicks staggered on all fours, coughing and spitting up blood. He wiped at it with the back of his hand, unknowingly smearing it across his face.

Roth's motion tracker picked up the six aliens long before they reached the team, who prepared for their arrival. Snow sprayed the corridor as the aliens raced toward them. Three fell immediately, while the other three kept coming. As Snow continued to fire, Krall stood beside him and let loose with his flamethrower. The remaining aliens went down. The motion tracker registered no other movement, so Newt moved forward.

Hicks could hear the alien king in his head. He slowly staggered up on his feet.

"KILL HIM NOW. DO IT AND SERVE ME. I CAN GIVE YOU IMMORTALITY."

Packer unsheathed a commando knife out of his boot and turned to face Hicks. Hicks hadn't thought to bring a knife. No problem. He'd just have to take Packer's. Packer was bigger than Hicks, but Hicks had tangled with the biggest Centurions without a problem.

When Packer slashed at him, Hicks jumped backward to avoid the knife. He didn't realize until it was too late that he was backing into the wall of aliens. One of them reached out and grabbed him by the arm, the same arm another alien had nearly taken off with his jaws. Distracted by the groping alien, Hicks didn't see Packer lunge again. The knife sank into his left shoulder. Packer withdrew it and sank it into Hicks' left thigh.

Newt stopped in her tracks at the sound of an extremely loud blood-curdling agonizing cry. She quickened her steps and the team followed behind her. Roth's motion tracker was beeping again. Then the team came upon an opening in the wall of the corridor. They stepped out onto a ledge overlooking a huge chamber.

She stared in horror at the scene below her. Hicks was surrounded by three queens and more than two dozen drones. One of the drones was holding him by the arm while Packer prepared to plunge a knife into Hicks' chest. Newt quickly adjusted her pulse rifle to fire a single shot at a time and she raised it up. She fired one shot, hitting Packer in the leg.

Packer staggered backward. Hicks struggled with the alien holding him and finally he pulled himself away, resulting in the creature's claws raking over his shoulder, where Packer had stabbed him. Packer was writhing on the ground now, holding his leg.

Hicks looked up at the ledge that was above the alien king. He saw Jorden and the rest of the USCM team. But it didn't register that they were there to help him. He looked down at Packer and got on top of him, ripping the knife out of his hand. Kill him…serve the Divine One…Hicks plunged the knife into Packer's chest…over and over…"Mother fucker!"

Newt's eyes went wide as she watched Hicks stabbing Packer in the chest repeatedly. He didn't stop, even as she saw that Packer was no doubt already dead.

The aliens spotted the new threat and jumped into action. The meal would have to wait. There were new hosts to deal with.

Newt adjusted her pulse rifle again and fired as the first of the aliens scaled the wall and reached them. "Kill them all," she told her team as she slung her rifle on her shoulder. Then she moved to the edge of the ledge and looked down. There was another ledge below. She could drop down to it and then drop down again to the main floor. She proceeded to lower herself over the side.

Hicks was oblivious to the shooting around him as the team blew away the aliens. He just kept plunging the knife into Packer's chest. Thin ribbons of blood trailed the knife as he raised it and plunged it again. Kill him…serve the Divine One…

Newt dropped down from the upper ledge and came face to face with a set of jaws containing teeth that were almost as tall as she was. The sudden sight of the huge mouth startled her and she instinctly jumped back. Her feet slipped on the edge and she fell backward, landing hard on her back.

Hicks heard Newt cry out in pain and he slowly got off of Packer's bloodied and mutilated body. He felt excruciating pain in his shoulder and in his thigh. As he limped toward Newt, he fell on his knees and puked.

"YOU BELONG TO ME NOW. GET UP AND KILL HER."

Hicks raised his head, looking in Newt's direction. Kill her…

Bishop walked down along a corridor, following the thick black cables that had been attached to the globe. The corridor split up ahead and Bishop followed the path where the cables continued to run along the ceiling.

Newt rolled in agony. Then she finally forced herself up on her feet. She leaned against the wall for support and looked up. Hicks was getting on his feet. He still had the knife in his hand and he was moving toward her. She looked into his eyes and saw something wild in them, something out of control. She slowly lifted her pulse rifle toward him. "Stop right there, Hicks."

Hicks gave her an evil smirk. The Divine One wanted her dead and he was going to kill her. If he had to die trying then that was the Divine One's will. He continued to move toward her. "Go ahead and shoot."

Newt watched him walking toward her. He was covered in blood, Packer's blood and his own. His face was smeared with it. He looked like a crazed psycho on a killing rampage. "I mean it, Hicks. Don't move any closer!" Newt fought with her feelings. She didn't want to shoot him.

Then from somewhere above, a barrage of bullets struck the ground in front of Hicks, making him stop in his tracks. Hicks looked behind him. All the queens and the drones were dead. Several facehuggers were running around, but they were getting blown away one at a time. He was on his own. The Divine One had no children left. It was up to him.

Newt watched as Hicks raised the knife again, blood still dripping from it, from his hand. He took several more steps and more bullets hit the ground at his feet.

"Go ahead and kill me! Do it!" Hicks stared wild-eyed up at the threatening marines.

"No!" yelled Newt. "Hold your fire, goddammit!"

Hicks looked down and met her eyes. She lowered her pulse rifle and raised her hands. All he had to do was take five more steps and he'd be on her, burying the knife right into her heart. Put her out of her misery…No, not her…something about love. Yeah, he was in love with her. Fucking fool…kill her. Don't let her trap you. She'll turn you in. You'll go to prison.

"KILL HER. DO IT NOW."

Newt held her hands up. She knew he was listening to the voice in his head. "Listen to my voice, Hicks. Don't listen to him. Just drop the knife."

Hicks tilted his head and he looked at the knife in his hand, looked at the blood dripping from the blade. He felt the pain in his shoulder and thigh, every bone in his body hurt.

"Dwayne…look at me."

Dwayne? Who was Dwayne? He had heard that name before. He looked up at her.

"I love you…"

Bishop entered the mammoth cave through a doorway. He was on the ledge where the alien king was. But he immediately saw the creature for what it was. A machine. An immobile machine. He looked up at the cables and followed them to where they intercepted with the creature. What would happen if he simply broke the connection, disconnected the creature from the spinning globe?

"I love you, Dwayne. Please drop the knife."

"KILL HER NOW! DO IT! DO IT!"

Hicks felt the knife slip out of his hand. Then suddenly the voice in his head was gone and he had no idea where he was.

Newt watched as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he pitched forward, falling on his knees. Then he fell backward. Despite the pain in her back, she rushed over to him, sliding down on her knees next to him. When she lifted his head up on her lap, he came out of it, looking dazed and confused.

"Where am I?" He winced in pain.

Newt looked up at the mega-monster on the ledge. Then she saw Bishop step out from behind it.

"I think I disabled it," said Bishop. "It was just a machine."

Newt looked back down at Hicks. He was writhing in pain. "Is he still talking to you?"

"Talking to me? Who?" And then everything went black.

Hicks had passed out. Newt gently lowered his head on the ground. Then she got up and looked up at Bishop. "Bishop, get down here. I need you to carry him out of here."

"Are we finished in here?" yelled Krall from above.

"Yes. We'll meet you back at the APC."

 

Chapter 10 - Onboard the Judgement Again​

Hicks was lying on a bed in Medical. He was sitting up, propped up with three pillows behind him. He followed Jorden with his eyes. She was pacing in front of the bed, waiting to hear word that the team she had sent back down to the planet had returned.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked her impatiently.

"You really don't remember, do you?"

Hicks had a vague recollection, but the images were like pieces of a puzzle he couldn't put together. He lied to her. "No…"

Newt stopped pacing and walked over to sit on the side of the bed. She didn't look at him. "You totally went nutso. I almost had to shoot you." Newt frowned and looked down. "You killed Packer."

Hicks touched her arm, wanting her to look at him. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what I was doing."

Newt turned to look at him. "You didn't have a choice. He would have killed you."

"I'm sorry," he said again. When she moved closer to him, he wrapped his arms around her, despite the severe pain all over his body.

"I'm just glad you're alive."

"Yeah, me too." He turned her face toward him and kissed her deeply.

Bishop's voice came on the com. "Bishop here."

Newt pulled away from Hicks with a smile. "Go ahead, Bishop."

Hicks' head fell back on the pillow. "Some things never change."

"The dropship has returned," said Bishop.

"And?" asked Newt.

"They were able to retrieve both Packer and Gibson…and the gold."

Newt turned to Hicks and they high-fived. "Now that we got that out of the way, Bishop, how about explaining what it was you found on that planet?"

"If I must," came the reply.

Everyone was congregated in Medical with Hicks, listening to Bishop.

"The system operating the electro-magnetic shield was complicated. But I managed to break the code and disabled it."

"What about the freaking alien brain, Bishop?" asked Krall impatiently. "Who gives a rat's ass about the shield?"

Newt shot Krall a warning look.

"The globe we saw was in fact a very elaborate computer system that contained a neuro-net, much like the one that operates me. It was programmed to enhance sound waves our own systems are unable to pick up. The enhanced sound waves are picked up by the aliens. That's how they communicate with each other."

"So, if this globe spoke through the alien king and you disabled it, the aliens have no one to communicate with?" asked Newt.

"My guess is that they're still able to communicate with each other on a local level. But without the enhanced sound waves, they're no longer receiving orders from the alien king."

"Which probably means they'll be easier to target and kill," added Shale.

"Maybe," said Bishop.

"Do you think the Centurions made that system?" asked Newt

"I doubt it," replied Hicks. "They don't possess the kind of intelligence to create such an elaborate system. The Centurions were probably controlled by the globe, too."

"So does this mean the Centurions are now running around like chickens with their heads cut off?" asked Snow.

Newt ignored Snow's question and walked up to Bishop. "So what you're saying is that there's someone else out there that built it? Someone or something we have yet to see."

"That's what I'm guessing."

Newt turned to Hicks and they exchanged a concerned look. "Okay…that's it for now. Bishop, let's head for home. Cryo-chambers in a couple hours, everyone."

There were groans among the team as they filed out of Medical.

"I'll go program the ship for the jump," said Bishop.

"Wait, Bishop, before you do that, I want you to program several nukes. Now that the electro-magnetic shield won't be interfering, they should be able to hit the surface."

"How many do you want me to program?"

"How many do we have?"

"Forty-eight."

"Use whatever it takes to create a radioactive cloud that covers the entire planet."

"I'll let you know when they're ready," said Bishop before walking out.

Newt turned back to Hicks and walked toward his bed.

"I guess we're not out of the woods yet," said Hicks with a sigh.

"Yes we are. With the gold we found, the team can retire."

"Are you retiring, too, Jorden?" Hicks reached out his hand to her.

Newt gave him a half smile and then gave him her hand. "For now."

"Really. And what are your plans?"

"I don't know. I was thinking of a career fulfilling contracts."

Hicks knew she wasn't serious about it, but he played along. "Following in my footsteps is not a good career move. Trust me, you don't want to be on the wrong side of the law."

"Maybe we can start up our own company. Call it, 'Contracts Are Us'."

Hicks laughed. "Are you sure you wanna continue hanging out with me?"

"Why not?"

"Because it can be dangerous to your health. I'm convinced that I'm flypaper for freaks."

It was Newt's turn to laugh. He tugged at her hand and she obliged him, climbing on the bed with him. She moved into his right arm, since his left arm was indisposed from his injuries. She kissed him warmly. Then she hugged him.

Hicks acknowledged her…but barely. He looked straight ahead with a slightly glazed look in his green eyes. Earth…they were going to Earth. Home to 300 billion human beings. Havoc was headed their way…

And its name was Hicks…

The End