Suddenly, screams echoed from the corridor.
The others exchanged wary glances before sprinting towards the commotion.
Alexandra caught sight of two young women among them she hadn’t seen before.
They looked almost identical, both beautiful and well dressed, their hair and makeup carefully done and their clothes coordinated.
Who are they?
There was no time to wonder.
Alexandra pushed the thought aside and kept running.
Lan managed to keep up thanks to the physical conditioning she’d maintained in God’s Dimension.
Xuan, Zero, and Kampa had no trouble keeping pace, but Shuaixi soon fell behind, breathing hard.
Zha looked back, saw Shuaixi struggling, and went back to help him.
Despite his assistance, Shuaixi remained visibly exhausted.
The screams came again, this time from a vast hall ahead.
When the group reached the entrance, Alexandra immediately spotted the two women near the far wall.
They were pressed close together, both visibly terrified, trying to put as much distance between themselves and whatever had attacked them.
Alexandra slowed.
“You two. Come here.”
They hesitated before hurrying toward her.
Alexandra touched her ring.
Two handguns appeared in her hands, and she passed one to each woman.
“Point and click. Keep moving. Don’t worry about anything else.”
The first woman looked down at the handgun, then back at Alexandra.
“I’m—”
“Names later.” Alexandra glanced toward the far side of the room.
“Stay close if you can.”
Three bodies lay across the hall—a blonde woman, a Black man, and a white man, all dressed in Nostromo uniforms.
Their expressions were frozen in pain, their chests torn open from the inside.
One corpse bore a considerably larger cavity, as if a far more monstrous creature had ripped its way free.
Panic broke out again.
The two women were swept toward the opposite corridor with the others.
Alexandra took a step after them, then stopped.
There was no way to chase them down without leaving the people still around her unprotected.
Zha opted not to pursue them.
Instead, he crouched beside the bodies, checking them over closely.
His face drained of color moments later, his voice hushed as he asked, “How many… how many were there?”
Xuan answered, “Only one.”
Zha lurched upright, his face pale.
Alexandra’s gaze lingered on the gaping wounds in the bodies.
“Soon, we’ll have to face three… maybe even more, and bigger ones,” Zha declared.
Zero dropped beside the three bodies.
He wiped a smear of blood on his hand, brought it to his nose, and inhaled.
“Dead for four, five hours.”
Xuan crouched nearby, studying the puncture wounds on two bodies, then gesturing to the one with the gaping cavity.
He went quiet for a moment before speaking.
“The Queen. This is bad. Our mission is to eliminate all Xenomorphs, right? If there’s a Queen on this ship… we’re screwed.”
“The Queen?” Zha and the others exchanged confused glances.
Lan rubbed her forehead.
“The mother one, the one that lays eggs. Much bigger and stronger than the usual ones. Right?”
Xuan nodded.
“Exactly. Ten times stronger. We need heavy weapons to even scratch it. And worse, we stick out like sore thumbs.”
Zha frowned.
“Stick out? How?”
Xuan gave him a sharp look and explained what he meant, eventually circling back to the concept of genetic locks.
“Ever since I saw Alien,” he said, his voice low, “I’ve always thought these creatures adapt and mutate based on their host. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Like humans who’ve unlocked genetic locks.”
“Genetic locks? Humans?” Everyone stared at the scientist, who was already lost in thought.
Suddenly, screams and desperate cries echoed from the corridor’s depths, growing louder.
Ten seconds later, everything went silent.
Zero’s gaze locked onto the corridor.
“Those three idiots. They’re being torn apart.”
Zha swallowed hard.
“Let’s go see what’s left. If we run into any Xenomorphs, we put them down. They’re young, weak, right?”
Xuan nodded.
“Yes, infants still. They shouldn’t be much trouble if you have enough firepower. Besides your Desert Eagle, haven’t you ‘acquired’ any other weapons?”
Zha and Jie exchanged bitter smiles.
“Let’s be real,” Zha said, his voice tight with frustration, “we’re not like you. Jie may have military experience, but Lan’s a writer, Xiaoyi and Shuaixi are students, and I’m stuck behind a desk. Alexandra’s the only one here who actually knows how to fight. Expecting us to be experts or warriors is delusional.”
Xuan simply smiled, gesturing for the others to proceed.
As they walked, he continued explaining genetic locks and the history of God’s Dimension.
When Xuan mentioned the discovery of traces of God’s Dimension at the summit cave of the Neanderthal, Jie, already on edge, exploded at Xuan, launching into another argument.
Zero raised a hand and spoke in a low voice.
“Your theories might hold water,” he began, “but consider our reality. Blood. Thirty meters ahead, left. Who dares face it?”
Zha surveyed the group, then spoke up.
“My enhancements are strongest. I’ll scout it.”
No words broke the silence as they cleared the way for Zha.
Jie, ever vigilant, reloaded his Desert Eagle and offered a grenade to Alexandra.
She took it without hesitation and touched her ring; the grenade vanished into storage.
Zha crept forward, each footfall heavy.
Reaching the corner, he cautiously peered around.
The next moment, his body convulsed, his hands clawing at the wall as he vomited.
Seeing no immediate danger, the others rushed forward, but the horror proved contagious.
Lan, Xiaoyi, and Shuaixi joined Zha in losing their lunch, even the hardened Jie and Alexandra struggling to suppress their own reactions.
A monstrous heap of flesh lay piled against the wall.
Bones, organs, and scraps of flesh were mixed together.
There was barely anything recognizable left.
Scattered fabric scraps were the only reminder of the lives extinguished here.
Only Zero, Kampa, and Xuan remained unaffected, crouching silently beside the carnage.
Kampa picked at remnants of cloth.
“Delinquents,” he muttered, exchanging a glance with Zero.
“The meat from two bodies is missing.”
Just as they stopped vomiting, another wave of nausea hit Zha and the others at the mention of missing meat.
This time, even bile rose from their empty stomachs.
“Not entirely,” Xuan interjected, carefully examining the remains.
“Most of this is inedible—chewed bones and discarded organs. See these shoulder blade fragments? Three sets. The creatures likely consumed what they could and left the rest.”
Nobody felt better after hearing that.
Zha eventually regained some composure.
The others leaned heavily against the wall, barely able to stand.
Even Alexandra couldn’t deny a flicker of nausea.
Was this Xuan’s twisted sense of humor?
Xuan’s words hung in the air, reflected in the pale faces of the recovering group.
He scanned the scene, his gaze lingering on those still slumped against the wall.
“We need to move,” he said, his voice laced with urgency.
“This is far worse than we anticipated. The Xenomorphs have already reached the third stage, and… they’re closer than we think.”
Zero and Kampa abruptly dropped to a crouch, their eyes wide with alarm.
Zero hissed, his voice barely audible, “Something’s wrong… danger…” When both seasoned warriors reacted like that, Alexandra felt a chill run through her.
Alexandra kept her eyes fixed ahead.
Her enhanced reflexes were already working beneath conscious thought, keeping track of movement around her.
She didn’t need to remind herself to watch its hands.
She was already watching them.
And its tail.
And the corridor behind it.
And every path she might need to take if it charged.
“Behind us!” she roared.
She stepped back and spun around.
A huge black shape tore out of the corridor.
It was a mature Xenomorph, towering at about 2.7 to 2.8 meters, with a tail extending about three meters behind.
Its glossy black exoskeleton gleamed under the emergency lights, and its elongated head extended backward from its body.
Its horrifying mouth was filled with sharp teeth, and its protruding tongue was also lined with lethal barbs.
At the back, leaning against the wall, Xiaoyi slumped, drained of strength after vomiting.
Zha’s gaze swept past him, catching Xiaoyi’s barely responsive turn of the head before fear locked him in place.
Xiaoyi stared at the Xenomorph’s open mouth as thick saliva dripped from its jaws.
He barely had time to react before the creature’s lightning-fast tongue lashed out and punched through his shoulder, burying itself deep.
Even Alexandra caught the movement a fraction too late.
Her enhanced body reacted before her conscious mind could fully process it, but the attack was already past her reach.
Xiaoyi was yanked toward the corridor’s shadowy depths.
“No! Please! Zhang-ge, Zheng-ge, help me… I don’t wanna die!”
He flailed, grabbing at the corner of the wall as the Xenomorph dragged him away.
Fingernails ripped back, his survival instinct kicking in too late.
Each scream as they tore away one by one couldn’t loosen his grip.
Though his fingers shredded to bloody nubs, he held on until the creature’s relentless force dragged him screaming into the dark corridor.
Five bloody handprints stained the metal wall.
The air thrummed with Xiaoyi’s fading screams, a counterpoint to the sounds of rending flesh and bone echoing from the darkness.
Except for Alexandra, who had been keeping an eye on the rear, Zha, Zero, and Kampa—jolted from their stupor by the screams—were the first to react.
Pulling grenades from storage, Zero and Kampa poised for the only heavy weapons they had against the horror.
Unlike them, Zha, remembering his vow, gritted his teeth and charged forward.
Xiaoyi’s pleas echoed in his mind, demanding action.
Alexandra prepared to react if the beast turned her way.
Her keen eyes caught sight of Zha charging, only to see him return a second later, his desperate cry ripping through the silence.
“Run! There are three Xenomorphs! Run!”
Without hesitation, Zero and Kampa tossed their grenades, the explosions echoing violently in the tight corridor as they sprinted deeper into its darkness.
Jie, Xuan, and Shuaixi followed suit, their panicked footsteps fading down the tunnel.
Alexandra glanced at the struggling Lan and the approaching Zha.
She turned and ran the other way.
Rounding a bend, the roar of an explosion shook the corridor.
Silence descended again, broken only by the fading thrum of their frantic escape.
Alexandra’s boots pounded against the metal floor, each clang echoing her flight.
After a short sprint, she spotted a door.
She surged towards it, the automatic sensor recognizing her approach and sliding open with a hiss.
A frantic sweep for control panels yielded results, and with a flurry of button presses, the heavy blast door slammed shut, a red warning light glowing above its surface.
Only then did she release the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, eyes adjusting to the dimly lit interior.
Sparse furniture and lived-in details painted a picture of a life abruptly abandoned.
Alexandra tightened her grip on her firearm.
One Xenomorph.
One sealed room.
She could work with that.
“One-on-one, sealed room? God, bring it on.”
Her words were barely out when a deafening BOOM rocked the room.
Something massive slammed against the door, followed by a guttural roar and the relentless pounding of claws.
Alexandra used the brief respite to steady herself.
She had no idea where the energy behind Ebony and Ivory came from, and she wasn’t about to test the limits of weapons she didn’t fully understand inside a spaceship.
She raised Ebony and waited.
The door burst inward.
The Xenomorph lunged.
Alexandra raised Ebony, but its claws crashed down against both her arms, forcing them toward her chest.
The heavy impact drove her backward, her boots scraping hard across the metal floor.
Her body reacted before she had time to think.
Ivory rotated in her grip, slipping beneath the pressure as she twisted her arm free.
She fired twice in quick succession.
One shot struck the thick shoulder plating while the other whizzed past, but she was already shifting her weight before the creature could close the distance.
The tail came around abruptly from her blind side, catching her off guard, but Ivory came up on instinct to parry the blow with a sharp CLANG that sent her arm sliding sideways and forced her back two steps.
She caught her balance instantly, staring down the dark, looming silhouette of the Alien as it lunged again.
This duel wasn’t going to be easy, but she was ready.