The Xenomorph came at her again, forcing Alexandra back a full step as its massive claws swept toward her.
Now that she had a moment to actually watch it move at close range, the difference in size was impossible to ignore.
She was only 170 centimeters tall; the creature stood well over three meters, almost twice her height, with an enormous reach that let it bridge the distance far faster than something that large had any right to.
Jesus Christ.
She knew what the Xenomorphs looked like in the movies.
She also knew the mature creatures in the original Terror Infinity scenario were already almost three meters tall.
This one was bigger.
A lot bigger.
And it was terrifyingly fast.
When it lunged, Alexandra fired Ebony while shifting her weight, but she purposely held herself back from simply emptying the weapon.
She still had no idea where the guns’ firing energy came from or how much they could actually produce; the last thing she needed was to discover that pushing them too hard could punch a hole straight through the ship’s hull.
The shot struck the Xenomorph’s shoulder and made it recoil for a fraction of a second, but it came right back at her.
She twisted aside as its claws swept past her chest, bringing Ivory up instinctively when the tail followed.
Though her sword would have been a reliable option, she wasn’t ready to commit it to the fray until she found a proper opening.
Ivory caught the heavy, barbed tail instead, knocking it away just before it could strike, though the brute force still traveled straight up her arm.
Stronger, too.
The creature wheeled around and charged again.
Alexandra moved with it, keeping track of the bulkheads, the scattered furniture, and the rapidly shrinking space behind her.
She could read its trajectory the moment it committed, but knowing where the blow was landing didn’t make the monster any slower.
Its claws hammered down; she ducked beneath them into a low crouch, slipping past the arc of the attack to fire once into its flank before scrambling back out.
The shot landed.
The Xenomorph barely cared.
Okay.
That’s a problem.
She drew her sword.
The anti-corrosion blade came free in one smooth motion, and Alexandra instantly felt a measure of relief having it in her hand.
At least she wouldn’t have to worry about the metal dissolving if the creature’s acidic blood splashed across it.
The Xenomorph rushed her, and instead of retreating, Alexandra stepped toward it, using its immense size against it.
She slipped underneath a sweeping arm, pivoting with the momentum to draw her blade across its side.
The steel bit into the chitinous armor, but the cut was shallower than she wanted.
Before she could recover, the creature spun with shocking speed, forcing her to flash the sword upward.
Claws struck the flat of the blade with enough force to shove her sideways, and though she caught her footing before she could fall, the monster was already pressing the advantage.
Too fast.
The thought had bogged down her mind for a fraction of a second when the tail snapped outward like a whip.
Alexandra moved, but not quite fast enough.
The barb tore deep into her thigh, a white-hot line of agony exploding through her leg.
She stumbled, nearly collapsing, and managed to throw a hand against the wall to keep upright as the Xenomorph ripped its tail free.
Dark blood began to soak rapidly through her pants.
She didn’t even have a full second to look at the wound before the monster charged again.
Her body moved before her conscious mind could issue the command.
She brought the sword across her body and caught the incoming claw, her enhanced strength keeping the blade from being knocked aside.
The impact still drove pain through her injured leg.
Then her awareness suddenly widened.
The Xenomorph’s movements became easier to follow.
She saw its shoulders shift before the claws came down.
Her body reacted to attacks before she had time to think about them, ducking, turning, and moving her sword into position almost on its own.
Alexandra stared at the creature for half a second.
What the hell just happened?
She had no answer.
Her body simply kept moving.
When the Xenomorph struck again, she slipped around the attack and cut into its forearm before it could recover.
A spray of corrosive blood ruptured from the wound, catching her across the arm and flank.
The acid hissed against her suit and burned through the fabric, biting into her skin.
Then the sensation abruptly changed.
The searing heat of the acid didn’t continue to eat away at her flesh.
Instead, a strange warmth spread beneath her skin around the places where the acidic fluid had touched her.
The burning faded with startling speed, leaving only a faint tingling sensation behind.
She had no idea why, and there was no time to investigate, but the damage stopped spreading entirely.
She clenched her teeth and kept moving.
The creature was already coming at her again.
She fired Ebony into the side of its head, followed by a shot from Ivory into its shoulder.
The Xenomorph staggered but recovered almost immediately.
Alexandra backed away, breathing hard.
Whatever had changed inside her, she didn’t have time to figure it out.
She just had to survive.
As her injured leg throbbed with every beat of her heart, the pain began to cloud her focus.
When the creature lunged again, she misjudged her distance; its claws caught her across the ribs and sent her crashing hard through a stack of loose equipment.
She rolled desperately out of the way before it could pounce, but the violent motion wrenched her wounded thigh.
Her breathing came in ragged gasps.
The creature advanced, and for the first time since the fight began, a cold certainty settled in her chest: she was going to lose.
That realization triggered a second, violent surge through her nervous system.
Her awareness returned with even greater force, sharper and more invasive than before.
Her muscles responded with a speed and coordination that felt entirely detached from thought.
She saw the subtle shift of the creature’s shoulders, read the vector of the strike, and moved long before the talons reached her space.
This is going to get me killed if I trust it too much.
The thought flickered through her mind even as her body dodged a lethal arc of claws.
The instinct was keeping her alive, but it didn’t make her immortal; the throbbing ache in her leg was proof enough of that.
She slipped around its flank, drove her sword deep into its ribs, and backed away.
When it turned, she fired twice, then switched back to the sword as the fight dissolved into a series of sharp, desperate exchanges.
She ducked beneath swinging arms, used the cramped layout of the room to bottleneck its bulk, and leveraged every architectural obstacle to keep the creature from utilizing its full reach.
Several times, claws missed her face by millimeters.
Several times, she escaped by sheer instinct.
Spotting a jagged, broken metal console protruding from the bulkhead, she lured the monster toward it.
At the last possible heartbeat, she ducked aside.
The Xenomorph slammed directly into the exposed steel, staggering under its own momentum.
Alexandra closed the distance instantly, driving Ebony twice into its chest before leaping backward.
The creature roared, spun, and lunged in a final, desperate charge.
She dropped into a low dive to slide beneath it, but the whipping tail caught her mid-motion, driving the tip deeper into her wounded thigh.
She hit the floor hard, rolling away as a heavy smear of blood stained the metal beneath her.
Struggling back to her feet, her injured leg nearly buckled underneath her.
She forced herself upward anyway.
The Xenomorph closed in, its claws knocking her sword aside and driving toward her upper body.
Her reflexes took over; she jammed a knee upward, twisted her torso, and brought Ivory around in a desperate arc.
Two rapid shots—one into the chest, one into the neck—finally checked its momentum.
The creature recoiled, and Alexandra tore herself away, stumbling backward against the bulkhead.
Whatever had happened to her in those last few seconds had given her just enough of an edge to survive, but the physical toll was catching up with her fast.
Her thigh was bleeding profusely, and her entire body screamed in protest.
Before she could stabilize, the Xenomorph came on again.
Her leg gave out entirely.
The creature’s tail lashed out, driving deep into her flesh, and she cried out as she crashed to the floor.
She raised Ebony with shaking hands and fired twice into its skull.
The monster shuddered, twitched, and finally collapsed, dead.
Gasping for air, Alexandra wrenched the embedded tail free from her thigh and threw the bloody barb aside.
The pain from the open wound, the burns across her arm and flank, the exhaustion, and the recoil from whatever had happened to her during the fight all hit her at once.
Her vision narrowed, her strength failed, and she collapsed onto the deck.
Her blood spread across the metal beneath her, mixing with the yellow fluid leaking from the dead Xenomorph.
Around the pooling fluids, the severe burning along her skin ceased entirely as something inside her took over, forcing the torn tissue to close.
Beneath the surface, her heartbeat steadied against the cold floor, and a quiet, unsettling process began beneath her skin, pulling the torn tissue back together.
Alexandra remained unconscious as the process finished.
The puncture in her thigh closed completely, the skin becoming smooth and unblemished once more.
The burns across her arm and flank faded entirely, leaving behind only the ruined, acid-scched fabric of her suit.
The dark pool of blood around her stopped spreading.
Beside her, the Xenomorph’s massive carcass became completely still.
Several minutes later, Alexandra opened her eyes.
She drew a sharp breath and pushed herself upright, sitting there for a moment as she tried to remember what had happened.
She looked down at the dark stains and smeared fluid surrounding her on the metal deck.
The burning had stopped long before she lost consciousness—an unnatural, impossible reaction she filed away for later.
Her gaze dropped to her leg.
Her suit was torn and burned through in several places, with dried blood covering the fabric.
Beneath it, her skin was completely whole.
She touched her thigh where the tail had pierced her.
Nothing.
She pressed harder, then ran her hand over her side.
The burns were gone too.
Alexandra looked at the dead Xenomorph, then back at herself.
“What the hell?”
She pushed herself carefully to her feet.
Her leg supported her without pain or weakness.
She took another step, then another.
Only then did she glance at her watch.
She checked the time first.
The display showed the mission countdown as expected.
Then she noticed something underneath it that hadn’t been there before.
[Mature Xenomorph (Mutated) killed. Awarded 1,000 points.]
[First Stage Gene Lock unlocked.]
[Survival anomaly detected. Cell Vitality and Reaction Speed enhanced.]
Alexandra stared at the display.
“Gene Lock.”
So that was what it felt like.
She had more questions than answers, but the distant sound of something heavy moving through the corridor cut them short.
Two guttural roars echoed through the ship.
Alexandra’s hand closed around Ebony.
The heavy chamber door began to warp and shriek under massive strain.
Sharp metal protrusions burst outward like iron flowers until razor-like claws carved a jagged opening into the room.
Two more Xenomorphs—hulking, monstrous titans easily a third larger than the ones before—prowled into view.
The first one lunged headfirst through the incomplete gap, instantly wedging its massive bulk in the frame.
Even before she consciously registered the movement, her body was already shifting.
She saw the opening in its attack before the creature had even finished forcing itself through the door.
A small, humorless smirk touched the corners of Alexandra’s lips.
“Bad choice.”
She raised her gun and fired.
The first shot tore through its skull; the creature thrashed violently.
Alexandra fired a second shot, finishing it off.
She lowered the gun as the remaining Xenomorph forced its way through the damaged door, roaring in fury.
Her sword was already back in her hand.
The creature charged.
Alexandra didn’t wait to calculate the distance.
Her body was already moving before the thought had fully formed, stepping aside before the claws even completed their arc, slicing across its forearm before pivoting to drive the blade deep into the joint beneath its arm.
So this is the First Stage.
The realization lasted less than a heartbeat before she moved again.
The Xenomorph recoiled, its heavy tail whipping through the air toward her.
She dropped into a low crouch, letting the tail pass inches above her head, and came up on the other side to drive a single, calculated shot into its chest.
The Xenomorph staggered back, bleeding corrosive fluid that hissed against the floor panels.
Instead of firing again, Alexandra closed the distance, her boots sliding across the slick deck as she thrust the anti-corrosion blade straight into its abdomen.
The blade twisted cleanly, avoiding the worst of the spray, and she yanked it free just as the beast lashed out with a blind, enraged claw swipe.
She ducked beneath the swing, her muscles moving with fluid, untiring precision, and waited for the final opening.
As the Xenomorph lunged forward again, she slipped directly inside its guard, driving the sword upward into the vulnerable underside of its neck.
The creature gave a final, strangled gurgle before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Beside the two cooling carcasses, her watch chimed softly, the pale text scrolling across the small display:
[Mature Xenomorph killed. Awarded 500 points.]
[Mature Xenomorph killed. Awarded 500 points.]
Alexandra stood over the fallen pair, breathing evenly, her body feeling remarkably light and intact despite the brutal skirmish.
She needed information on the ship, and she didn’t have to look far for the right person.
Touching her ring, Alexandra pulled a rugged portable tablet from spatial storage.
She pressed the power button and waited as the screen came to life, revealing Six’s face.
“Alexandra,” Six said.
“Six.”
Looking at her through the tablet’s camera, Six’s expression shifted slightly.
“You look terrible.”
Alexandra glanced down at herself.
Her suit was torn and burned through in several places, with dried blood covering the fabric.
Beneath it, her skin was completely whole.
“It’s been a rough day.”
“I can see that.” Six’s eyes moved over her for another second.
“And now I can’t even hold you in this form.”
Alexandra stared at the screen.
“You’re a tablet.”
“I am aware.”
“You were the one who said the tablet was practical.”
“I didn’t say I liked it.”
Alexandra laughed despite herself.
“Glad you’re here too.”
“Obviously.”
Shifting the tablet into one hand, Alexandra kept Ebony ready in the other.
The damaged room around her was still littered with broken equipment and blood, while somewhere beyond the ruined door, something scraped against the ship’s metal walls.
“I need your computer skills. Can you tap into the ship’s network?”
“Give me a moment.”
Six’s face disappeared from the center of the display as several windows opened across the screen, lines of information beginning to move past while she worked.
Alexandra waited, keeping Ebony pointed toward the doorway.
“Interesting,” Six said after a few seconds.
“This isn’t anything like the systems I’m familiar with.”
“Can you get in?”
“I’m working on it.”
Shifting her weight easily, Alexandra noted with a quiet, lingering flicker of surprise how entirely pain-free her leg felt, resting the tablet against her forearm while Six continued.
“Their computer architecture is considerably more sophisticated than I expected.”
“That’s good, right?”
Six’s face returned to the screen, one eyebrow slightly raised.
“It means I actually have to work for this.”
Alexandra smiled.
“Got in,” Six said a moment later as a set of new windows opened across the display.
“The ship’s main systems are fragmented, and a lot of the secondary feeds are dead. I’m pulling together what I can.”
“Can you get me a layout?”
“I already have it.”
The screen changed again, showing a detailed three-dimensional schematic of the spacecraft.
Alexandra lowered Ebony for a moment and leaned closer to the tablet.
“Show me the monitoring system and camera feeds. And see if you can locate anyone else on board.”
“Give me a second.” Six touched the edge of the display, bringing up a series of camera feeds where several appeared at once while others remained dark.
“I can see several people on the internal monitoring system. Some areas are completely dead, though.”
She tapped one feed and enlarged it.
“I have Xuan’s team in the control room.”
Another feed opened.
“And… oh.”
Alexandra looked down.
“What?”
Six switched the view again.
“Zha and Lan are having a rather eventful time near the lounge on Ship 25.”
The tablet filled with the corridor feed.
Alexandra watched Lan struggling against an Alien, its inner jaw clamped against her as Zha attacked with a sudden burst of strength.
Six watched alongside her.
“Impressive.”
Alexandra glanced at Six’s face.
“Zha?”
“I meant him.” Six watched the feed for another moment.
“Although I think his body is going to have something to say about it later.”
Looking back at the screen, Alexandra saw two more Xenomorphs moving toward them.
“Those two aren’t helping.”
“They’re heading toward them,” Six said.
Alexandra’s grip tightened around Ebony.
“Can you warn them?”
“I don’t have access to the ship’s communications from here. I’m still working through the system.”
Alexandra glanced toward the ruined doorway before looking back to the tablet, where Six’s attention had already shifted away from the camera feed to examine another set of data on the screen.
“Alex,” Six murmured.
“What?”
“Their computer is intelligent.”
Alexandra looked down at her.
“You mean the ship?”
“I mean the computer running the ship.” Six went quiet for a moment, her eyes moving across the information on the screen.
“I’d like to meet it.”
Alexandra smiled faintly.
“Can you use any of their synthetic or system technology?”
“I can preserve what I’m finding. Whether any of it is useful to me is another question.”
“You can improve yourself with it?”
Six raised an eyebrow.
“Possibly.”
Alexandra smiled.
“That’s the answer I was hoping for.”
“I thought you’d say that.” Six’s expression changed, her focus sharpening.
“Alex.”
“What?”
“There’s something else.”
Alexandra’s smile disappeared.
“What?”
As Six turned her attention back to the tablet’s data, she added, “I’m picking up a signal that doesn’t belong to any of the people I’ve identified.”