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A/N: Greeting all, sorry for another long delay in getting this chapter posted, between having a severe lack of enthusiasm and going back to rewrite most of the whole chapter from the beginning it's been a pain to get anything done. Hopefully, the next chapter or two won't take anywhere as long to get done.

Thank you, and please enjoy it.

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CHAPTER 37: Full Circle

"McNeal report." Alex's voice boomed over the coms unit, "McNeal report your status, over."

Slowly opening his eyes and blinking several times, Shawn found himself curled up in the fetal position on the metal flooring of the vent, his hands gripping the sides of his head. Sharp, throbbing pain pierced through his mind, so much so that it was close to maddening. The last few things he remembered was screaming, and then a sense of panic that quickly escalated into terror and even shock from the dozens of Xenos in the lab. He barely remembered the emergency station announcements that came in over the coms. It didn't take much for him to grasp the fact that he had been on the receiving end of a mental overload from the hive link. In that split second before blacking out, he remembered drowning in an ocean of panic and fear, a tidal wave that rose and cascaded over, dragging him down with no warning. His feeble mental barriers were no match for the raw outburst of sudden emotions, leaving him almost catatonic.

Whatever it was, it not only spoke to every human; it had spoken to everything on the station.

Lovely, Shawn snidely thought to himself, trying to get his senses back, just fucking lovely. As if messing with the Xenos wasn't bad enough, they were also messing with some all-powerful entity. Shawn wondered if there was a relation to the entity from the supply base and the one from Eclipse base. Not that it mattered at this point as one was still frozen and a quarter million miles away, and a nuke incinerated the other. Or had it, could a nuke or any man-made weapon kill something like it. Perhaps it survived the blast and left, letting its captors think that it was dead, only to come back later for revenge.

It was right then Shawn became aware of a heavyweight pressing down on him. Glancing down, he saw that Shadow was partly lying on top of him. Even the Praetorian seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness.

"McNeal report, are you there." Alex's voice came in over the coms again.

"Fuck, yes, I'm here!" Shawn blurted out, wishing that he hadn't as his head throbbed from the outburst. "Can you please not talk so loudly? My head feels like it's about to fucking split in half." Shawn said as Shadow slowly lifted his head to look around. "Are you alright?" He asked Shadow, reaching up to gently pat the side of the Xeno's head. How long had they been out, a few seconds, minutes, hours?

'My head hurts, but otherwise, I am unharmed.' Shadow said, looking at Shawn. 'I tried to block out as much from the others as I could, but you took a great deal of blowback from the link. How are you doing?"

"Everything hurts, my head, my body, everything," Shawn muttered, wishing that he could curl up and go to sleep for a few days, god that idea sounded so good right about now. "How long were we out?" He asked, not really expecting an answer.

'For a few minutes, I think.' Shadow said as he extended his toothed tongue and produced several globs of life-jelly, offering it to Shawn, who downed it quickly. 'This should help elevate the discomfort.'

"Anyone mind telling me what the fuck that was, and what just happened?" Ryan said, gasping for air, his voice blaring over the coms.

"Besides royally pissed off, I have no idea, and I don't want to." Shawn shot back tightly, shutting his eyes, welcoming the dark, and hoping that the life-jelly would kick in soon. "Shadow, you sure you're alright?"

'Yes, I am fine.' Shadow replied, his voice slightly shaky. 'Ghost, Alese, Tank, are any of you injured?' He asked as he uncoiled himself, finding the whole experience more than a bit unnerving. As the creature had sifted not only through his mind, but through the memories of the entire hive. Seeing visions of the universe on fire, and the human race purged from it. While he had no love for the humans on this station, the thought of an entire species wiped out of existence was both equally sickening and terrifying. It was also a stark realization that it might happen if the humans kept on their path.

While Shadow had no doubt the whole race wouldn't be eradicated as there would be survivors here and there, enough to restart over. Ultimately, however, everything they had worked to build and create would be destroyed. It was a sobering thought.

'Neither Alese nor myself are injured,' Ghost replied, the two drones had split off minutes earlier to make their way to the lab through a separate junction to assault the lab from different areas.

'We are unharmed; the humans are slightly shaken but uninjured.' Tank answered back, 'that was unpleasant.' He said, distress lacing his voice.

"There were so many voices, emotions, images; every one of them was confused and terrified. It all hit at once, and I couldn't block any of it out, then that squeezing, not being able to breathe, and that voice, if you could even call it that." Shawn said, slowly rolling onto his back. There are far worse things in pod one, Alex had told him, and just like that, as if the universe wanted to prove its goddamn point and show them how far it was willing to go, it had given them all a sample of how horrifying the monsters could be. Every moment he stayed in this place, his hatred for it grew, hated what it stood for, hated what was being developed and stored here, and ultimately what it might be used for. It seemed as if this station was designed to bring out the worst in people. Would the universe and his race truly burn, or was that creature, whatever it was, giving them a severe mental mind fuck, having its fun with the ones that had captured it. Or was it being serious, and giving them all a sneak peek, a warning of sorts of what might happen if they didn't slow down or stop.

There's a storm coming; if you burry yourself and hide and don't draw attention, you might survive. That's what the entity on the supply depot told Shawn, despite the mental illusions, games at his expense, and its perverted nature, he knew that it was deadly serious when it told him that. There were parallels or at least some similarities in the display of power between both beings. The only difference was that he wasn't sure if the entity back on the supply depot could do physical harm. This thing, however, had almost snuffed out an entire space station with as much ease as if someone were kicking over an anthill without so much as a second thought.

Was that creature the storm that the entity had warned him of? No, Shawn didn't think so, that didn't feel right, just another poor life-form that was captured to further the technological progress of its investors. There was something he picked up on, a feeling more than anything else, that whatever it was or had been, was vastly ancient, perhaps even timeless. Shawn wondered how this organization had managed to capture something like that. A disturbing thought crossed his mind, what if it had allowed itself to be captured, allowed itself to be brought on board. And if that was the case, for what reason, maybe to deliver a warning as to what was coming? Watching the galaxy burn, the human race reduced to ash. Alex's voice piped over the coms breaking his train of thought.

"The hive link you mean?" Alex asked, "Can you continue? It may only get worse as you get closer to the lab."

"Shadow's filtering out most of it; right now, it's more of a minor buzzing in the back of my head than those deafening screams." Shawn weakly groaned, trying to regain his strength. "Give me a minute or two, and I'll be alright." Already the life-jelly was starting to take effect, as the headache began to subside. A couple of minutes later, Shawn rolled over onto his stomach and started to craw, continuing his way toward the lab with Shadow trailing close behind. The weight of both of the weapons and the pack made it difficult to move completely silent.

Thinking back, he vaguely remembered the station shifting again, far more violently than before. Then the announcement, detachment commencing, and purge complete, it was a minute or two later that the constricting feeling ceased. Even with what he had just gone through, there was now a sick and hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach, one that he tried to ignore but couldn't. Whatever had just happened, the number of people that had just died, that was on him, and it was something he was going to have to live with for the rest of this life. However, if that were the price he'd have to pay to get the Xenos off this station, then so be it, he would live with it, plain and simple.

As the two continued, inching their way closer to the lab, the tingling in the back of Shawn's mind became more intense. Almost as if something was trying to probe into his mind, trying to make sense of whom he was. A mix of curiosity, confusion, doubt, even distrust projected into his mind from multiple sources. "Guess the others know we're here now," Shawn said, glancing back at Shadow.

'Yes, they are aware of us,' Shadow said, 'So many new voices reaching out, wanting to communicate. Mason has been very busy.'

"Well, tell them to stay calm and act normally, we can't afford to have anyone in the lab figure out something is going on," Shawn said, the pain in his head easing to manageable levels. The probing from the Xenos in the lab, however, had increased. He was thankful that Shadow was filtering out most of it.

The two made their way through the winding maze of twists and turns of the vents, having to stop a few times as voices filtered from below and passed by quickly. Within another fifteen to twenty minutes, Shawn and Shadow had made their way to one of the vent coverings overlooking the lab. Carefully Shawn stepped over the cover to the other side, both peering down into the labs.

'Ghost, have you and Alese reached your positions.' Shawn asked, slowly setting the duffle bag down as not to make any noise.

'Yes, we are in position.' Ghost replied.

Leaning back, Shawn cupped his hand over the mic, "Ryan, Alex, are you in position." He whispered as quietly as he could as not to alert anyone below.

Alex's voice came back over the coms equally as quiet. "We are moving into position now, stand by."

'Tank, has Alex tried anything to give us away?' Shawn asked privately to the large Praetorian as he opened up the bag to remove some smoke and flashbang grenades, carefully setting each one down.

'No, he has not. He has remained strangely calm so far, quite unusual, especially for a human.' Answered Tank, 'But if he tries to betray us, I will kill him.'

'Let's hope that it doesn't come to that; I want to trust him, but right now…' Shawn didn't need to finish what he was saying as he figured the whole group was thinking the same thing.

'I understand.' Tank replied.

"Let's see what we can see," Shawn muttered to himself, pulling out a small metal box from the bag. A small screen was set in the center with a few knobs and buttons at the bottom, and a long flexible metal tube attached at the top left.

'What is that?' Shadow asked as his head tilted in an all too familiar gesture when he or any of the Xenos were curious about something.

"It's a probe, with this I can peek inside and see what we are dealing with." Shawn whispered, extending the small metal tube just past the bottom of the vent grate. The tiny view screen flashed on, revealing a portion of the lab just below. Slowly panning the end of the optical metal tube with a knob, the rest of the lab slowly swiveled by on the screen.

Rows upon rows of the large transparent pods flashed on the screen, each one containing a black, shiny, skeletal figure with an elongated head and serrated bladed tail. The aliens frantically paced around in the small confines of their clear prisons. Shawn panned the camera around, revealing dozens of lab personnel in the area; each one focused on their duties. While there was far fewer personnel in the lab than he first thought, the number he saw was heavily augmented by guards and combat androids. No doubt, the large numbers were due to Tanks early escape attempt. Even with surprise on their side, it was going to make for a frantic battle.

"Damn, that's a lot of Xenomorphs, forty maybe fifty from what I can see," Shawn said in a hushed voice.

'As I said, Mason has been busy.'

'It looks like there are at least two dozen white coats in the lab, and just as many guards placed all around, maybe more.' Shawn told his three Xenos companions. "Alex, Ryan, I count six guards at the main entryway doors, two on the outside and four inside, a mix of human and androids, and maybe a total of two dozen possibly more inside the lab itself.

Another flurry of curiosity poked into his mind, even with Shadow blocking most of it, he could swear invisible fingers were milling around inside of his head. "Can you please tell them to stop, it's distracting," Shawn whispered to Shadow as he wrapped the flexible metal tube around the camera and placed it in one of his chest pouches.

'They are understandably curious about you.' Shadow informed him, relaying the request to the rest of the Xenos below.

"Can they be curious after we get them off this station?" Shawn asked as the buzzing in the back of his mind stopped. "I really don't need them trying to poke around in my head right before or during a fight."

'They will refrain from any more probing.' Shadow said, looking over the grate. 'The grate is bolted in, I can rip it out, but it will give us away.'

'It is the same for this one as well,' Ghost interjected, 'a few drops of our blood will be enough to eat through the metal and allow us to remove the grate before anyone below knows what has happened.'

'Agreed,' Shadow said as he poked the tip of his double fused finger with a claw tip. Acidic yellow blood slowly flowed from the small wound. With a few drops on each bolt, the metal immediately dissolved to a silvery paste.

"Shit, do you smell something burning?" A voice from below crept up into the vent area.

"Maybe it's another electrical fire." A second voice quickly followed."

"It smells like it's coming from the vent over here." The first voice said.

"Got something over here on the other side as well, maybe it's a fried junction or conduit box."

"It smells like metal caught fire."

As light flooded the opening of the vent, Shawn and Shadow leaned back and remained as still as they could.

"I can't see anything, no smoke, and I don't hear anything."

"Call maintenance and log it in, see when they can get around to checking it out.

"Between that shockwave, losing pod one, and whatever the fuck spoke and tried to kill us, I doubt we'll see anyone soon."

"You two, back to work, NOW." A cold voice ordered.

At those words or the voice that the words came from, Shadow's body stiffened and his lips peeled back as warm drool fell from his chin. An overwhelming wave of rage and hate erupted from him, and his vision narrowed and reddened. Every part of his entire being roared at him to rip through the flimsy metal floor, and rend the source of that voice, to tear it to pieces, to listen to its screams and beg for its miserable life.

Primal, animalistic, and instinctual raw emotions bore into Shawn's mind. Hate, rage, the immense urge to sink claw into flesh, to break bone and to taste the blood and meat of a fresh kill, but more than anything, the overwhelming urge, no, the need to take vengeance.

Reaching out, Shawn placed his hand on Shadow's slick dome. Right away, Shadow jerked his head up, his lips peeled back, and his mouth opened with the deadly inner jaw ready to lash out and strike. "Focus," Shawn whispered, "we are so close, do not lose it now."

A few moments went by as Shadow calmed himself down, barely regaining his composure. 'It is him.'

"Mason?" Shawn asked, picking up how agitated Ghost and Alese now were. While neither one of the drones was about to fall into a full-blown rage at hearing Mason's voice, it did send them into a state of elevated aggression. While he didn't like the idea of a slaughter happening, he had told Shadow he wouldn't stop them from doing what they needed to do. It was a moment that he'd been dreading, and in a few minutes, he was going to be in the middle of an all-out massacre. A small part of him had hoped that there wouldn't be that many people in the labs when they broke in. He was wrong.

'Yes.' Shadow seethed as drool dripped from his chin.

"Don't lose your focus; remember we are here to free them, not to take revenge," Shawn said to him, his hand running down Shadow's face and under his chin. Already Shawn could tell that Shadow was relaxing at the physical contact. "Do what you need to do, but remember that we are here for them."

Letting out a small hiss, Shadow lowered his head, his gaze turning to the room below. 'I want to kill them all, I want to tear them apart and listen to them scream, and see the terror in their faces and to smell their fear. I want them to know that we won and they lost.'

"As I said, I won't get in your way, and I'm not going to stop you, but if you let your anger and rage blind you, we may fail and never leave. Is that what you want, to die here or be recaptured, or have that happen to Alese, Ghost, or even Tank?

Exhaling deeply, Shadow looked back at Shawn. 'Or watch you die, or be captured and tortured.' Shadow said, the possible scenario running through his mind, the rage falling away only to be replaced with a hollow, sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. The thought of losing Shawn, his Shawn, no he would not allow that to happen, ever.

"I wasn't about to bring that up, but yeah, there is that possibility," Shawn answered, not wanting to let his imagination run rampant on what would happen if he was captured. He figured it would involve multiple forms of torture, information extraction, and then a painfully slow death. It was something he wanted to avoid if he had any say in the matter.

'I won't let that happen, I will die before I let anything happen to you.' Shadow said, focusing his mind on the task before them. Free his hive mates and leave, and while revenge was now a distant second on his list, it was still there.

"Then let's make sure none of us die," Shawn whispered as the thought of any of his Xenos dying, especially Shadow, left him with the same hollow and sickening ache in the pit of his stomach. Life without the Praetorian at his side would be a life he would no longer want to live. Even if he didn't want to admit it, especially to himself, not even Ghost or Alese would be able to fill that void. They would offer comfort and be there with him, and he would be beyond grateful for that, but it would never be the same.

'Agreed,' Shadow said, reaching down, his fingers slipped silently through the grate. 'Alese, Ghost, I am removing the cover now.' He said, slowly lifting the grate cover, holding it steady so as not to scrape the edges as he brought it up and gently laid it down.

'As are we,' Ghost replied back, 'let us know when to strike.' The tension in his voice was palpable, and his emotions were a whirlwind of anger, fear, and anxiety. Memories of this place were coming back to the surface and not just for Ghost either.

Tapping on his wrist-mounted computer, Shawn started to disable the cameras, shutting them down. "Cameras are going offline," he said, communicating to Ryan and Alex. "Preparing to throw smoke and stun grenades." Shawn watched as the data-pad indicated the lab's camera system shut down one section at a time. 'Now to see if he's really with us or not,' Shawn mentally told Shadow.

"Confirmed," Alex replied, "we'll engage when they go off."

A few seconds later, the indicator on the data-pad confirmed that all cameras were offline for both the lab and the surrounding area. "Cameras offline, tossing grenades," Shawn whispered into the mic, lying flat on his stomach, grabbing one of the smoke grenades and frantically threw it as far as he could. A mix of smoke and stun grenades were haphazardly tossed in all directions, each one detonating seconds after landing on the lab's floor.

With a mix of smoke, deafening thunderclaps, and bright flashes, the lab erupted into chaos. Screaming, coughing, and cursing filtered up into the vents as everyone below tried to figure out what happened.

It was now or never.

Shawn pushed himself out the way as Shadow slid through the opening into the room headfirst, the Praetorian screaming his battle cry as he fell into the lab. Alese and Ghost answering in kind with battle cries of their own as the pair dropped into the middle of the room, slashing, clawing, and biting at the nearest defenders in a violent and bloody mess. "Alex, Ryan, GO!" Shawn barked as he prepared to drop through the vent hole. Another battle cry, this one while slightly muffled was no less powerful as it echoed into the vents. Tank unveiled himself and was battling the guards outside of the lab, his battle cry was immediately met with the roar of weapon's fire.

That's it, I've gone fucking insane to be doing this. Shawn thought to himself as weapon's fire, and screaming erupted from below. Dropping down, he hit the floor, the weight of the pulse-rifle and packs offsetting his balance enough to where he toppled over onto his back, the smoke immediately burning his eyes. Great, no fucking goggles, nice going dipshit, try to think of everything you need to bring to a goddamn firefight except a pair of fucking goggles. Idiot. He berated himself rolling over and sliding to take cover behind a nearby console, his heart beating so fast now that the sound filled his ears.

Chaos, confusion, and overwhelming panic was the only thing that Shawn could describe as he quickly looked around. The shadowy forms of people running through the smoke trying to get to safety. The dark and fluid figures of the Xenomorphs bounding through the smoke, pouncing on their prey. And the breaking of bones, flesh wetly tearing and ripping apart, blood curdled screams that trailed off with bubbling, gurgling sounds; then nothing.

Pushing the gory scene out of his mind and focusing on what needed to be done, Shawn tried to gauge his bearings, figuring out what to do next. Randomly firing throughout the lab wouldn't do anything except draw unwanted attention to himself. He needed to pick his targets, take them down quickly, and move on. The guards were the main threat, not the scientists or techs, deal with them first then move on to the others.

While the smoke worked as cover for him and the Xenos, it also worked for the other side. Unlike the human guards, however, the androids would remain unaffected by the smoke and flash-bangs. Unable to see more than a few meters in front of his face, Shawn kept low and quickly moved around using the terminals, computer stations, and whatever else as cover. Hot tracer rounds whizzed overhead, a few coming within inches of hitting him as strobing muzzle fire lit up the area.

"Primary targets identified, engaging hostile Xenomorph life-forms, terminate at all costs." A monotone synthetic voice spoke up. Turning around, Shawn caught sight of three maybe four combat synths in formation, walking toward one of the Xenos. Their weapons aimed, but curiously, none of them firing yet. Shawn's eyes widened in horror as he saw the silhouetted bulky form of several large cylinders with connection tubes strapped to the backs of a couple of the androids. 'FLAMETHROWER…' Shawn screamed the warning to the Xenos through the hive link as the roar of liquid fire erupted from the android's weapon. A river of red, yellow, and orange cascading from the nozzle, spreading out, coating, and burning everything it touched. 'SCATTER!' He barely got the last word out as enraged screams erupted from his hive mates.

Without any warning, a slight burning sensation ran up his legs, right side, and arm. Although to a much lesser extent, it was a feeling that he remembered all too well and one that he never wanted to experience again. Visions of the plasma fire that had disfigured him years ago flashed through his mind and for a split second, he thought he was on fire, but quickly realized that he was not in the path of the belching liquid flame, he was feeling what the Xenos were feeling.

One of them was on fire and burning.

"The fuck you assholes didn't." Shawn gritted through his teeth as hot rage started to take hold. Steadying himself, he needed to focus on the battle; a little fire wouldn't hurt his Xenos. Right? At least that's what he told himself. Hell, they had taken rounds from pistols, both pulse, and assault rifles, and even stun-rifles at point-blank range and brushed it off as if it were nothing. They had survived whatever this place could throw at them before they escaped, there was no way a burst of napalm was going to slow them down much less stop them.

It was also not the time to let specters of the past get the better of him and distract him. Leveling the pulse rifle at the small group of androids, he jerked back on the trigger. The weapon rode up as hot rounds flew out, followed by a loud roar and bright muzzle flashes. Gripping the top of the rifle barrel with his free hand to steady his aim, Shawn continued to fire short bursts into the small group. A pair of the figures jerked slightly from the impacts and turned to face his direction, the artificial white glowing eyes turning slightly red.

"Hostel target confirmed, engaging." One of the androids said, its monotone voice displayed no emotion, the pair opened fire on what they now perceived as a hostile human attacker.

Ducking behind the terminal, a mix of sparks and fire showered down on Shawn as dozens of rounds tore through the computer station setting it ablaze. "Shit, shit, shit." Shawn spat, forcing himself up he bolted away from the now destroyed terminal. Almost blindly, he aimed his weapon toward the small group and let loose another volley.

Several more terminals burst into flames and sparks as the androids continued to fire. Dropping down to the cold, metal floor, Shawn slid past a pair of transparent pods. Taking cover between the pods, he glanced up only to see the occupants staring down at him. Both of them warriors and neither one was looking very pleased. "Oh, shit," he muttered to himself, realizing the predicament he was in as he had possibly placed both Xenos in danger. Though the androids wouldn't be stupid enough to open fire on the pods and risk breaking them, would they?

A volley of rounds peppering the transparent pods leaving dozens of spider cracks in both units answered that question.

"Fucking androids," Shawn muttered as he scooted back, getting out of the android's fire line. If he could just somehow flank his attackers, blindside the damn things and take them out. A loud, almost deafening sharp crack erupted into the air, instantly the lead androids head burst into a white mess, a moment later the other android fell to the same fate.

"Targets down." Alex's voice came in over the coms. What's your status, over?"

"Still alive, can you take out those flamethrowers?" Shawn asked, not wasting a moment as he picked himself up, spotting the other two androids. Both androids were slowly advancing on Shadow and Alese, trying to box the two Xenos into a kill zone. As soon as either Shadow or Alese would try to make a break for it, one of the androids would fully open up with the flamethrower cutting off their route and herd them back into place.

"Negative, I don't have a clear shot from my vantage."

"Cover me," Shawn said, bolting to an undamaged terminal a few meters away. Leveling the rifle, he tried to aim. However, the androids kept walking behind either containment pods or terminals, making getting a clear shot almost impossible. Hold and squeeze, hold and squeeze, he told himself as the training that James had helped him with started to take hold, don't rush, an opening will appear, when it does, take it, don't hesitate. The two androids walked past another pod, a brief opening presenting itself. Aiming, Shawn put the large fuel tanks right into the iron sights of his weapon and slowly squeezed the trigger, "Got you." He muttered as several short burst erupted from his rifle. Hot rounds blew through the metal casing, sparks flew, and the highly flammable and pressurized liquid found new exits to escape from. Jets of ignited fuel sprung from the tanks, loudly hissing like an enraged serpent about to strike. The deadly pressurized fuel of the canisters spraying onto both the androids and the surrounding area.

Shawn swore for a second that he saw the tank bulge out before a fiery mushroom erupted engulfing the two synths. The deadly contents expanded and blew outward, the lit napalm coating everything in its wake, including androids, humans, and Xenos alike. Inhuman screams thundered from the fiery pyre as Shawn found himself knocked off his feet from the blast and back into one of the pods. A few seconds later, a second explosion erupted from the other androids fuel tank.

Darkness swallowed everything or tried to. The only light was now from the fire that bathed the room, and the surrounding area in a warm orange glow, a glow that would soon die out. The hum of power that fed the room ceased. A rapid series of loud, heavy metallic clicking echoed throughout the area. The sound repeated over and over as if someone was opening and closing an oversized lock.

'SHADOW…ALESE!' Shawn screamed through the hive link, the metallic clicking not registering in his mind, nor the soft mechanical hiss or the smell of stale air that was so close to him. Pushing himself up, using the pod as support, a burning sensation washed over his body, uncomfortable as it was, it didn't feel as if he was on fire. "Oh, shit, no, no, no, no." Not even thinking about his safety, he took a step forward about to run into the blazing mess, they had to still be alive, there was no way they would end like this, not when they were so close.

Warm breath washed over the side of Shawn's face; a low hiss flooded into his ear, immediately catching his attention. Turning his head, he found himself within inches of a Xenomorph. Not one that had the smooth, semi-transparent dome, this one had the ridged head of a warrior. In fact, he recognized it as being the very same warrior that was in the pod he was next to.

'You fight for us, you fight with us?' A voice, deep and female, flowed into his mind. 'You came with our brothers and sister to help us?' She asked, kneeling down to his height as she glided her wet fingers across his face, obviously curious about him.

The realization quickly hit him, the blast from the fuel tank had knocked the power out to the area, and that meant that the pods housing the Xenos were not only unlocked; they were now open. Shawn looked around as he saw dozens of the black skeletal figures erupt from their long and cramped confines. Each Xeno looking to attack their now former captors and tormentors. In a matter of fleeting seconds, drones, warriors, and even several types that Shawn had no idea on what kind Xeno they were pounced and tore into whatever humans that had been unlucky enough not to make it to the nearby safety room.

The few remaining guards fired into the charging group, only to be torn apart seconds later. A few of the Xenos, as Shawn observed in the dimming room, seemed to be taking their time in ending their prey's life. An act of retribution, he figured.

"Yes, but Shadow and Alese," Shawn said, regaining his focus and biting down the rising panic in his stomach and mind.

Extending her arm, she pointed one of her double fused fingers toward the fire. 'Observe.' She told Shawn, slowly turning her head to look toward the flames. Though still an inferno, the fuel was beginning to burn out and die. 'They are alive and unharmed.'

Shadow's massive figure bolted through the fire, Alese close behind him, smoke wafting off the two. In one of the Praetorian's hands was what looked to be charred human remains. At least at first glance, while the whole body was charred solid black, it seemed to be melting. Partly burned entrails and white blood pooled and trailed out from large rips in the torso. With a swing of his arm, Shadow hurled the grotesque remains toward a wall. The malformed figure almost collapsing in on itself as it impacted the bulkhead.

'Disgusting things,' Shadow spat with an emphatic hiss as he turned to look at Shawn. 'Are you injured?'

"Am I injured?" Shawn answered with a mix of both shock and nervous laughter. "I should be asking you two that. You two were in the middle of an inferno, how are neither of you hurt?"

'We are perhaps a bit well-done.' Shadow answered humorously, trying to ease the tension some, 'But other than that, we are unharmed.'

'We only caught the outer edge of the blast and thankfully are far more resilient to fire than humans are.' Alese interjected.

"Fucking-hell," Shawn muttered to himself, relieved that neither one were injured, "Let's not ever do that again."

"Agreed," Shadow replied.

"Where's Ghost at?" Asked Shawn, realizing that the other drone with not with them.

Alese turned around and gestured toward the far end of the room, only a few small emergency lights illuminated the outer perimeter area. 'He's finishing one of the remaining combat androids on the far side of the lab.' She said, now turning her attention back to Shawn and her two hive mates standing next to the human, the pair of warrior Xenos examining him.

The two warriors ran their fingers through Shawn's hair, then over his face and arms, feeling and examining the soft hair and skin. The long tubed tongues coming out, drawing in deep breaths to scent taste his pheromones and finally through the hive link, carefully probed the surface of his mind. While most humans would have found the prodding and probing terrifying, Shawn felt quite at ease with the examination. As he had been through it before, he knew that it was the Xeno's way of imprinting with someone that was outside of their hive or even species. He did wonder how far this examination would have gone if not for the pressing circumstances they were in.

'It is good to see you again, my brother and sister.' Shadow said, stepping toward the two warriors, Alese keeping in stride next to him, trying to discreetly end their inspection. After all, there would be plenty of time for poking, prodding, and examining later on. Something that would lead to much-needed stress-relieving activities later on.

Taking the subtle hint, both warriors stepped away to greet their Praetorian brother. 'And you both as well.' The male warrior said as he stepped up to Shadow, pressing his forehead to Shadows' then over to Alese. 'None of us thought to see any of you again.'

'Apparently, you will have a great deal to tell us.' The female warrior said, coming up to Shadow and greeting him. 'Your return is as unexpected as it is welcomed.'

'It is a long story, one that we will share with the whole hive.' Shadow said to the two warriors as he looked over at Alese. 'When we are far away from this place.'

"McNeal!" Alex's voice quickly broke up the hasty reunion. Both warriors whirled around with claws spread and hissing in aggression, ready for a fight at the sound of the unfamiliar human's voice.

Quicky Shadow intervened before both Xeno's pounced on the interloping human. 'He is an…ally.' Shadow said, still not sure where about the human's allegiances lay. But if he helped them escape, then that was good enough, at least for now.

Alex came jogging up, a small pocket light illuminating the area in front of him, Tank and Ryan a few meters following behind. "We have a problem."

"Just one?" Shawn asked, not sure if Alex was joking or serious, though, considering the man's past demeanor, he doubted he was joking.

"It's a rather serious problem." Alex shot back with a slight edge in his voice. "The power outage caused the emergency pressure doors to drop, and without power, we can't open the doors from this side."

"You're sure?" Shawn asked.

"It's an emergency protocol," Ryan said, "In case of a system-wide power loss, the pressure doors engage, sealing and isolating the area from the rest of the station. It's to prevent whatever is in the lab from escaping. Normally, a backup generator would kick in, and providing that fails, there should be battery backups. It's to allow the containment to stay active long enough for all lab personnel to evacuate before the area is sealed up. But as you can see…" Ryan gestured to the almost pitch-black room.

"The explosion must have somehow damaged both the emergency generator and the backup batteries," Alex said.

"Or possibly the power conduits were damaged." Shawn interjected, "What about the vents, we can exit the way we came in."

"No, we can't, there are pressure shutters that drop to prevent what you are suggesting," Alex replied.

Ryan nodded in agreement, "He's right, you would have to cut through dozens of reinforced shutters to make it through. The whole system is designed to prevent escape and providing that doesn't work..."

Shawn thought back to the announcement about pod one, "We get purged and then vaporized."

"Correct," Alex said. "While not the most pleasant outcome, it would be instantaneous, and there are far worse ways to go."

"Christ Alex, did anyone ever tell you that you completely suck at giving pep talks?" Ryan snidely remarked, "I mean, if it's all the same to you, I would prefer not to think about getting vaporized by a nuke if I can help it."

"I am merely stating the reality of our situation and that we need to face facts, plain and simple. To do any less is to delude ourselves into false hope." The guard replied, his tone still level and almost too calm for the situation.

"You sure you're not an android?" Ryan sarcastically shot back.

"Hey enough, alright!" Shawn barked, "So Alex, what are we in for, and what options are open to us?"

Alex pointed back toward the pressure doors. "Once Commander Snyder and the senior staff have confirmed that a power loss has happened in this area, they will assume the Xenos are loose and have killed most if not everyone. The protocol will be to send a large assault team to neutralize all hostiles and rescue anyone that may still be alive, provided anyone made it into the safety room. Between organizing the team and getting the door open, I figure we have between thirty minutes to an hour at most."

"And once the assault team gets here, how are they going to get the door open?" Asked Shawn. "Tell me it's not something as simple as someone pushing a button from the other side."

"Two options will be available to them, either they will attempt to reactivate the door with a portable power cell, and if that fails, they will cut through with a heavy plasma cutter. At that point, they will initiate the breach and attempt to neutralize any and all hostiles in the area."

"Meaning us as well," Ryan interjected.

"Correct," Alex said, "But it is the only window of opportunity we will have to escape."

"Fuck," Shawn muttered, looking around, dozens of Xenomorphs were converging in front of a small room, hostility radiating from them like a massive solar flare. Others were milling about in small groups of two to four. "So, we have around, what, fifty Xenomorphs, more or less, most of them pissed off and ready for a fight, not to mention we've got access to a not so small arsenal of weapons. What are we looking at in terms of numbers?"

Alex closed his eyes for a few seconds, his head bobbing up and down slightly. "Two to three dozen, possibly more, the guards will be in full combat load-out, with combat androids to fill out their numbers, and possibly some heavy assault units. Think of your standard combat android except bulked out, almost nine feet tall, full armor, and carrying an assortment of both handheld and heavy internal weapons."

Shadow, Alese, and the two warriors stepped up the small group. 'I have not battled against these heavy assault units, but they sound like they might be a problem.' Shadow said.

'I have,' Tank said, 'they are quick for their size, the best option is to attack them from behind, rip their head off or put a hole into the base of it. If you do not, you will be in for a deadly fight.'

"So, an all-out frontal assault is not an option I take it, do you have an idea?" Shawn asked, noticing that Ghost had joined the large group in front of the room. What the hell was going on over there, he wondered to himself.

"We'll need to draw the whole team in, surprise them; get in close and take them on one on one. And when I say close, I mean knife-fighting range. The guards may be decent in hand to hand combat, but none of them can match a Xenomorph. Either way, it'll get pretty damn ugly, so I hope that you are ready."

'I would rather die free trying to escape this place than to spend another moment in those cages as a prisoner.' The female warrior exclaimed. 'If this is our day to die, then I will take as many of our enemies as I can to allow our hive to escape and have a chance.'

'Let's hope that it doesn't come to that.' Shawn said to the female warrior, "Alex, what about boobytraps? We've got grenades, and god knows what else from the bodies here; maybe we can find an intact tank or two from one of those flamethrowers."

Alex nodded, "I'll look around, see what I can use, start planning out kill zones."

"Let me know what areas to stay away from, and I'll see to it that the Xenos know. We should work on ambush spots; also, we need to see what we can do to flank them after the team has entered, maybe if we can box the whole group in, we can finish this off quickly." Shawn told him, wishing to god that someone else was here calling the shots and making decisions that were about to snuff out however many lives. He knew that no amount of wishing was going to change anything; this was the path that he chose to walk, and no matter what, he couldn't back out. At least he wasn't walking it alone, and that made it somewhat more bearable.

"Shadow, Alese, can you…" Shawn didn't even finish asking if they would get the bags still up in the vent area as both Xenos bolted off toward the opening they had crawled out of.

'On it.' Both said almost in unison.

Turning to Ryan, Shawn had something that he needed the tech to help with. "Ryan, can those work stations be accessed without the main or backup power at all?"

"Each terminal has a small emergency power cell so the staff can backup or transfer data in case of a power loss, but they are only good for an hour or two. Why?"

"I want to know exactly what the hell this lab was working on, can you transfer any of the data to a data core?" Asked Shawn.

Ryan nodded over to a massive workstation seated up against a wall several dozen meters away that could easily seat eight to ten people comfortably. Next to the terminal station was what looked to be a sub-room that extended back into the outer wall that seemed to be split into two separate areas. Each area had its own independent entryway door and window. The closest door looked to be a standard office door; however, the entrance to the second area seemed to be heavily reinforced. "The main terminal is right over there, if the power cells kicked in, then I should be able to." Quickly Ryan walked over to the main terminal with Shawn and Tank following behind. "Okay, power cells are active," Ryan informed him, looking over the dimly illuminated control panel, "and it looks like there's just under two hours of power before the main terminal goes dark."

'Here are the bags.' Shadow said as both he and Alese set them down on the floor next to Shawn.

"Thanks," Shawn said, opening one of the bags and retrieving a data-core with several cables and passed it to Ryan. "Here, will this work?"

Taking the data-core, Ryan turned it over, examining it. "This is a military-grade data-core, do I even want to know where you got this from?"

"Take a guess," Shawn told him.

"Saratoga?"

"Saratoga."

"Alright," Ryan said, plugging the data-core into the terminal. "I'm going to do a mass dump, I doubt we'll get everything, but it may give us an idea of the what's and whys. Though I doubt you're going to get any real facts from this data."

"Why is that?" Asked Shawn.

"This project was given to Mason, if you want to find the actual truth or as close to the truth as possible, check his office," Ryan said, nodding to the adjacent wall. "If he was keeping any dirty secrets to himself, it would be in there."

"What about that second door? A lot of the Xenos are gathered around the window and are pissed but aren't doing anything," Shawn stated.

"It's a heavily reinforced safety room for lab staff to take shelter in, in case of a situation like this," Ryan replied. "Any staff are to hold up in there until they can be rescued. My guess some of them managed to make it in and are held up."

'Mason is in there, with a few others. Shadow said, 'They want him to know he has no place to run.'

"We'll deal with that motherfucker soon enough; I'm going to head to his office and see what I can find," Shawn said, grabbing a few tools and a small rucksack from the duffle bag. He was about to head into the small office room with Shadow following closely behind when Ryan called out to him.

"Shawn, I've got the data transfer starting, but there's something I need to look into," Ryan said.

"What is it?"

"Elizabeth's team, they're trapped in this section close by."

"Elizabeth's team?" Shawn asked as he had heard Ryan talk about her briefly and knew that she was involved with the female hosts in some way but nothing definitive.

"She and her team were trying to stabilize the female hosts that Mason impregnated. None of them knew what they were getting into when they signed on, and they don't deserve to go out this way."

"Alright, go and check on them. Just remember, if Alex is correct, we're going to have a full-blown attack force coming up our asses in less than an hour." Shawn said, hoping that everything wouldn't turn into a total cluster fuck once the attack force breached the area. While he had no doubt it would be chaos, he hoped that it would be on some level controlled chaos at least. "So please get back here as soon as you can."

"Will do."

'I will accompany him.' Tank said, as the human tech quickly made his way for the lab doors, the Praetorian following behind with a smaller female warrior in tow.

Heading into Mason's office, with Shadow and Alese following behind, Shawn threw the rucksack onto a nearby terminal. The office was far smaller than what Shawn thought it would be, also very spartan. The main terminal sat at the front-facing wall just under the main window, giving anyone working at it an optimal view of the lab and all within. A small work desk sat center with the left side wall with two pairs of filing cabinets flanking the left and right side of the desk. Each one spaced out exactly a foot from the edge of the desk. On the backside wall were four black, metal five-tier bookcases, the small cluster aligned, centered, and anchored with absolute precision. The left and final wall were bare, save for a small wall-mounted safe that sat perfectly centered both in height and width of the wall and ceiling.

'I was expecting something more.' Alese stated, taking in the sparse surroundings, 'but knowing Mason as we do, this seems to fit him, cold, uncaring, minimal, no joy or warmth of life, only duty. Like him, it is sadly pitiful.'

"I didn't know what to expect," Shawn said as he looked around, seeing the anal-retentive attention to detail on how everything was precisely placed, "but it wasn't this." He didn't have any doubt that each item in the office, be it furniture or a single piece of paper, had an exact spot that never moved beyond it set boundaries. "OCD maybe," Shawn muttered to himself, now looking over the work desk.

The desk itself was of a simple design, a little over six feet wide and half as deep. The desktop was set in a mock wood veneer that had the look of a daily polishing. Two stacks of five old world spiral notepads sat at the upper right corner of the desk, every other pad turned upside down as to allow even distribution and symmetry. To the left of the stacks sat four data-pads, each one placed next to each other with a half-inch gap between them. At the top and center of the desk sat a pair of solid black cylinders, each one four inches tall. An orderly mix of old-style wooden pencils and ballpoint ink pens sat inside of the containers. The pencils stood straight up on the right side of the container while the pens stood straight up on the left side. As with the pads, the pencils sat, each one meticulously placed in order, used pencils in the front, unused in the back. Placed in front of the black container sat a pair of perfectly aligned rulers, one looked to be an old eighteen-inch steel ruler and the second one sitting on top of it was a white plastic triangular architect scale ruler.

Opening the rucksack, Shawn pulled out a small tool case with a plasma cutter, a moment later he was on his back; sliding underneath the terminal. It would only take a minute or two to cut through the bolts locking the undercarriage of the terminal into place, and with any luck, he could yank out the data core with ease.

'I am half tempted to drag Mason in here and defile his precious, little sanctuary while he watches.' Sneered Shadow as he walked around, observing every detail in the small office.

"Not a half-bad idea, but it's not like there's a lot here to defile," Shawn replied, prepping the plasma cutter. Just then, the sound of heavy footfalls echoed through the room, glancing up, he saw the two Xeno warriors that were with him and Shadow a few minutes earlier had entered the room and were looking around.

'Perhaps not, but there would be a great deal of satisfaction in observing his reaction.' Shadow said with a sly and devious tone in his voice. He sent a quick image to both Shawn and Alese of him pinning Mason to the ground with his foot, spraying copious amounts of bodily fluids over the small room, then trashing the area.

"If only we had the time," Shawn said as he lifted the heavily tinted glass shield on the cutter. It was then he caught sight of the female warrior crouching down in front of him, her head tilting back and forth slowly as if she was carefully observing his every action. Her body language and mannerisms were ones that he recognized as being that of insatiable curiosity, not one of overt caution. Odd that she seemed almost relaxed around him, and not just her but also the other warrior as well, who was lazily eyeing the office with no real interest, as Alese seemed to be communicating to him privately.

In truth, Shawn had half-expected most of the captive Xenos to try to jump him, Ryan, and Alex in a fit of rage and blood lust; however, that never happened. At first, he chalked it up to the fact that Shadow and Tank were in physical proximity and able to protect them, but yet, very little hostility had been projected toward any of them. Perhaps it was due to the not so small fact that most of the Xenomorphs at the time were occupied with the battle and were now focusing their attention on Mason and the surviving lab team who took refuge in the safety room next door.

He was thankful that at least two of the Xenos from the lab were accommodating when it came to communicating and interacting. At least that was the way it seemed when the two warriors were examining him a short time ago. The rest of the group was, at this time, an unknown factor as far as he was concerned. Despite the sense of curiosity and even mistrust he had experienced in the vents on their approach, he figured he would have to deal with each individual Xeno carefully. Despite Shadow, Ghost, Alese, and even Tanks' feelings toward him and the others, he had a gut feeling that not all of the Xenos would be so willing to accept a human as a part of their hive.

'What are you doing?' The female warrior inquired as Shawn began to cut through the security bolts.

The white-bluish plasma made quick work of the bolts, each one melting into a small puddle of white-hot goo that quickly solidified on the floor, sending up whiffs of smoke. "I'm going to pull out the data-core on Mason's computer terminal to see what he was up to and what plans he had for your race," Shawn replied as he set the cutter down and pulled off the bottom panel revealing the inners of the terminal.

'What is data-core?' She asked, leaning down until she was on all fours, shoving almost half the length of her head into Shawn's chest as to get a better look as to what he was working on.

Shawn let out a surprised cough at suddenly having the warrior's head crammed into the already tight area pressing into his chest and stomach. "Ummmm, as much as I appreciate your curiosity, I can't do any work with you this close." Under less stressful situations, he would have found the whole situation funny and maybe even encouraged her a bit, but as it stood now, he didn't have time for an inquisitive Xeno to be poking around.

'Sister,' Shadow interjected, 'let my human do his work, every moment we waste is a moment we lose to prepare for the attack that is coming.'

Quickly withdrawing her head, she nodded slowly, 'Apologies, it was not my intent to interrupt you.' She said, returning to her original stance of watching Shawn work.

"Don't worry about it," Shawn told her, quickly getting to work in finding the data-core in the mess of wires and circuits. "To answer your question, a data-core is a device that stores information, data, videos, audio logs, and the like. And whatever is on that data-core can be looked at or played back on another terminal.

The female warrior tilted her head side to side several times as she seemed to be mulling over Shawn's explanation. 'I do not fully understand.'

'We can better explain it later on.' Shadow said, coming up next to her.

"There's one," Shawn said, pulling out a simple black looking cylinder that was ten inches long, three inches in diameter with several plugs set in on one side. Laying it on the floor and reaching back in, a few seconds later, he retrieved a second and then a third cylinder. "Looks like that's it," He said, scooting out from underneath the computer terminal.

Getting up, Shawn tossed the three data-cores into the rucksack. While he wanted to know what Mason was working on, a part of him dreaded finding out. Were there other stations like this scattered throughout the galaxy, other places that were breeding Xenos. And if so, would Shadow and the hive as a whole want to rescue them? Would he then be committed to traipsing around the galaxy going to every station to try to free them? Now was not the time for what-ifs he told himself as he went over to the wooden work desk.

Picking up one of the paper pads, Shawn adjusted his light and slowly began to thumb through the pad, formulas, observations, and diagrams filled each page. As was now to be expected, each letter, word, and sentence that Mason wrote down in the pad was what he could only describe as perfect penmanship. "Definitely OCD," Shawn commented dryly, as he continued to read the pad.

Thumbing through a few more pages, Shawn came across detailed and even what anyone could describe as exquisite artistic illustrations. Progress report for accelerant induction into variable host bodies, the heading read, showing fine hand drawing illustrations of Humans, Arrakets and Xi'zarrians as well as several other races he had no knowledge of, except for one other name he vaguely recognized.

Yautja.

It only took a moment for his brain to snap back to the supply depot, and of the large, lifeless humanoid creature with the mandibles and dreadlocks that was in the display case. Whatever this accelerant was, it seemed that Mason had invested serious interest in it. Shawn had to wonder to himself if there was some kind of connection between the accelerant and the Xenomorphs since the Xenos seemed to be Mason's primary project. Unless the accelerant was some kind of side project that he was working on.

Quietly continuing to flip through the pages, the illustrations progressed in stages going from normal beings to creatures that became grotesque, deformed and mutated, barely resembling what they had once been. Timestamps and dates followed with the various stages of mutation, the pain threshold, and enhancement of raw strength, increased physical toughness, and a decrease in intelligence. Below each illustration was a set of side notes that caught his attention.

After mid-stage mutation, subjects become unresponsive to vocal communication, aggression levels expands exponentially. Beyond mid-stage mutation, subjects enter an uncontrollable animal-like state of hyper-aggression towards anything in the current vicinity. Subjects are tolerant of sedatives at one-quarter stage mutation and become immune at mid-stage mutation. Small arms fire become ineffective beyond mid-stage mutation; heavy weapons, most notably incinerators, prove to be the most effective way of dispatching subjects that have progressed to advanced stages of mutation. Projectile weapons are ill advised against subjects that have either reached or progressed past advanced stage mutation. Tissue from heavy physical trauma, including limb removal from normal, explosive, or armor-piercing ordnance, will regenerate. Regeneration time depending on damage received, the genetic makeup of specimen, and reaction to accelerant may range from a few minutes to several hours.

An unsettling bout of nausea churned in Shawn's stomach from the information he had just uncovered. The realization that both the humans that were brought here and the Xenos were not Mason's only victims, as he flipped through a few more pages. Early test subjects were humans, possibly hundreds of them. No names, only numerical designations were given to the poor souls. Dates of when the accelerant was introduced to the test subject, then observations of the mutation results with timetables of the various stages. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on the way one might view it, the early ending results were all the same for each test subject.

Test failed, subject terminated.

Closing the note pad, Shawn shut his eyes for a few moments trying to take in everything he had read, at this point he wanted nothing more than to throw out and burn what he had found. How many had found themselves victims of Mason's experiments, how many had been abducted and brought to this place only for their final hours to be in terrifying agony?

Another unsettling thought entered his mind. If members of the Arrakets and Xi'zarrian's race were abducted and brought to Eclipse station to be tested on, and the results were death or worse, then either race might consider it an act of open hostility or possible war against them. A frightening thought indeed, Shawn mused to himself.

Thankfully, as militaristic as the Arrakets might seem on the surface to outsiders, the majority of the time, they did not act without considering the ramifications and consequences of their actions. Usually trying to determine the cause and source of the problem and respond accordingly. While he doubted either race would go to war with humanity itself, he had no doubt that they would hound this organization to no end; possibly bring a formal claim to the colonial administration, maybe even the Senate itself. In addition, if naval action, even limited engagement, was denied to them within human held territories, they would simply take action outside of held territories. Even if this organization had additional starships as advanced as the Saratoga, they would be severely outmatched and outclassed.

Collecting the remaining paper and datapads, Shawn shoved them all in the bag and continued to look around, trying to find anything else. Shawn had half a mind to ask both Alex and Ryan if either one of them had ever heard of this accelerant. Though now wasn't the best time, later when they were back on board the Saratoga, and he had had time to process everything he would ask after he had a chance to read through the datapads. Perhaps try to come to some sort of understanding of what Mason's objective was.

None of this had anything to do with breeding Xenos, and if that was the case than what was its primary intended use? And to what end, and by who?

No, Shawn thought to himself, he would figure it out later, get help from Ryan if possible, maybe Alex if he knew anything. For now, however, he needed to stay focused on helping the Xenos escape, and that was all.

'You found something?' Shadow asked, noticing Shawn's sudden shift in mood, 'What was it?'

"Just more of Mason's disturbing work, apparently your race wasn't the only thing he was testing on," Shawn replied.

'Who else was he harming?' Shadow asked.

"Other than Xenos and humans, there are the Arrakets and Xi'zarrians along with a couple of other races I'm not familiar with. He was using something called an accelerant to mutate them into some kind of living weapon, but according to his notes, all of them died in the process, probably better from the looks of it."

'Did he describe what this accelerant is?" Shadow asked, a welling pit of nausea suddenly turning over in his stomach for some reason.

"No, or at least nothing that I came across in the few pages I looked over. What's wrong? Shawn asked, placing his hand on the Xeno's chest. Even through the hardened bone and reinforced chitin armor, he could feel the alien's heart racing. "You're actually scared."

Shadow remained silent for a few moments as he searched his hive memories. There was something vaguely familiar about what Shawn had just described, but whatever it was, the memory either wasn't entirely there or buried very deep in the hive collective. 'What you described is familiar in some way, but I cannot recall what it is.' After another few seconds, Shadow waved off the notion, 'Whatever it is, it can wait until later, right now we have far more pressing matters to attend to.'

"Like Mason and the rest of his staff?"

'Correct.'

"Well, Mason will be dead soon, and shortly after, this station will be no more," Shawn said, rubbing his hand across the front of Shadow's dome before walking over to the row of bookshelves. Immediately his eyes turned to a small box on one of the shelves, picking it up and opening it. He found a small stash of memory sticks. Closing the box lid, he threw it into the bag as he looked over the bookcases.

Looking over the slim collection of various books and operation manuals that lined the bookcases, Shawn doubted there was anything of real value, even the small box of memory sticks he now had. If he had any real insight into Mason's mind, then the truly valuable items, whatever they might be, were locked tightly away, such as what might be in a sealed wall safe not more than a few meters to his right side.

Looking over the safe, Shawn already knew that there was no way he was going to get past the security features on it. He might be able to trick a feature or two, but not all of them and certainly not within the time limit that might be allowed for these safes. "Retinal scan, fingerprint, DNA recognition, and numerical code input, lovely." Shawn said mostly to himself, eyeing the elaborate setup, "Wouldn't be surprised if it has some kind of self-destruct feature installed as an added bonus."

'You cannot open this device?' Shadow asked, looking over the safe as well.

"No, too many safeguards in place, and I doubt that Mason will open it for us out of the kindness of his heart," Shawn answered, getting a scoffed hiss from Shadow. "But maybe you can."

Shadow slowly turned his head, looking Shawn right in his eyes. 'You doubt that it's acid-proof.'

"That and with your strength," Shawn told him, earning a toothy grin from the Praetorian. "Just need the locking bolt and the hinges removed; then it should be easy enough to yank the door off."

Stepping aside to let Shadow in front of the safe, the Xeno leaned forward until he was only a few inches from the safe door. Opening his mouth, a thin stream of yellow acid-coated parts of the door, instantly, the hardened metal turned to a chrome-colored ooze as it dripped down, eating holes into both the metal wall and flooring.

Reaching into the expanding slag covered holes, Shadow curled his fingers, securing them onto the inner part of the safe door and a second later tore the door loose. The metal door creaked and groaned, protesting as it was ripped away and sent flying across the room, impacting on the far side wall with a loud metallic crack.

Only a few items sat inside the now opened container. Half a dozen paper notepads were bundled together, almost identical in appearance to the ones that were on the desk, along with several external data cores. "I would bet you anything that this is the important stuff," Shawn said, carefully reaching in as not to burn his hand and retrieved the notepads and data cores, placing them in the bag.

A chorus of loud, angry hisses and shrill screams ripped through the air with heavy, dull thuds that followed immediately. 'COWARDS!' A male's voice loudly echoed into Shawn's mind. His voice was seething with so much hate and anger, Shawn could swear that the Xenomorph was close to going into a blind rage.

"McNeal," Alex's hushed voice came in over the coms, "You need to get out here right now, the Xenos are getting agitated and are trying to break into the safety room."

"Yeah, I heard one of them loud and clear. I finished up with Mason's office and will be out in a second. How are those defenses coming along?"

"I've got a few grenade packs with some intact flamethrower containers jury-rigged together that I can remote detonate. I'll have more rigged up soon as Ghost has been assisting me in gathering up what I need."

"Any coms chatter about this area?"

"Negative." Alex replied, "And at this point, I'm unsure as to whether that is good news or not."

"Understood, we'll be out and see what we can do to calm them down." Shawn said, disconnecting from Alex. "Guess it's time."

'This is something you do not need to be a part of; if you wish to stay in here, none of us will think any less of you.' Shadow told him.

"No, I'm with you in this all the way, no matter how ugly it gets. I know you're going to rip him and the others apart. And maybe they deserve it; I know that at least Mason does."

Shadow's gaze panned toward the direction of the safety room, his mood now oddly calm and focused considering the circumstances they were in. Neither rage nor anger was in his voice when he spoke, only a calm focus. It was a signal that told Shawn the Praetorian had something in store for Mason. 'No,' Shadow stated, 'killing him would be a mercy, and that is something he does not deserve.'

"I'm not going to ask," Shawn muttered as he walked out of the office with the four Xenomorphs following close behind. Just to his right, what looked like over half the hive now gathered outside of the safety room, several of the Xenos were ramming themselves into the large window attempting to shatter it or clawing at the metal door trying to rip it apart. Wave after wave of scorching anger radiated from the mass collection of aliens as they attempted to break into the room.

"Holy shit." Shawn balked reactively, probably louder than he had intended to as he witnessed the relentless onslaught less than a dozen meters away. Immediately he started to back up and found himself bumping into the male warrior.

The warrior gripped Shawn lightly by the shoulders holding him in place. 'You have no need to fear, they will not harm you.' The warrior's deep voice reverberated within his mind. 'It is only those that are in that room.'

Saying nothing for a few seconds, all Shawn could do was stare at the unyielding attempt to breach the room. While he had felt anger come from Shadow, Alese, and even Ghost, that anger was always focused at a specific target, this was a hurricane of raw hate, fury, and rage that would sweep over anything in its path. "Yeah, sorry, but that doesn't help at all." Shawn retorted back, as one of the enraged aliens whipped his head toward him. A deafening hiss erupted from the Xeno's mouth as he slowly started to walk toward Shawn, a new target for his rage and hate.

The drone's head, and body laced with scars, both old and fresh, had managed a few strides before finding his way blocked by Shadow. 'You will not harm him!' Shadow seethed, his clawed fingers twitching with anger.

A loud screech, one filled with a mix of frustration and rage erupted from the drone, 'He and his kind are the enemy!' The drone bellowed. 'They deserve nothing less than death. You would protect this filth?'

Drawing up to his full height, towering over the drone, a menacing hiss exploded from Shadow. 'Be mindful of your intentions, my brother, if you touch him, you will regret your actions, and never insult him again." Snarled Shadow, as hot rage boiled up, his tail slamming down on the floor as a warning for his brother to back off. "His name is Shawn, and you will address him as such, and let me be clear, he is hive. He has given much and asked for little in return, he came here knowing the risks, knowing that we all might die, and with that knowledge, he did not hesitate to aid us, even when I told him it was not his fight. He has shown me that not all humans are the enemy and that we can peacefully co-exist together. Because of him, I even have a name that he gifted to me.'

Taken back by his brother's outburst and sudden defense of the human, the drone let out another loud, angry hiss, this one mixed with a hint of defiance, his tail twitching back and forth. 'Why, why would you protect one of them? They are the enemy of our race; after everything they have done to us, you would protect them. Have you turned your back on your own kind, my brother?' He asked accusingly, holding his stance as his sightless gaze shifted back and forth between Shadow and Shawn. 'Or have you become his PET? Is that what has befallen you after all this time, to become some human's tame plaything? Have you forgotten that our eldest brother was Mason and Stephan's plaything, something to be tortured and used whenever it suited their whims? Tell me, is that what you are now, a puppet for some loathsome human, are you at his whims, his mercy, does he use you and discard you as he sees fit?' The scarred drone sneered venomously, a sharp screech echoed throughout the room. 'As far as I am concerned the humans are our enemies, and nothing will ever change that, they are vermin and should be used as hosts to birth our young and nothing more.'

Normally it was frowned upon to lash out and strike another member of the same hive. Normally they would have been in a hive, not on a station being used as subjects. And normally no drone would have ever spoken to one of the elite guards of a hive in such a disrespectful and challenging manner. But nothing about their situation was even close to being normal, no hive, no queen and no home. For a split second, his anger almost getting the better of him, Shadow was tempted to pounce on his hive brother; slam him to the floor and add a few more scars to his hide, only a timely and thankful intervention stopped him from doing so.

'ENOUGH!' A deafening scream ripped through the lab, causing all to go silent, as another Praetorian made his way through the crowd. Each of the Xenos, warriors and drones alike stepped aside to let the elder Xeno through. 'Enough of your petty bickering brother, this human is not our enemy; even a youngling would not be so blind. Is it not obvious to you that he is here to help us, not harm us?' The Praetorian hissed at the drone, 'Or did you not observe how he put his own life in danger to help free us, do you think that if he was here to harm or use us that our brothers and sisters would let him? Do you think that if he were here to harm us, they would guard and shield him?'

'He is a human, he is the enemy, and they deserve nothing more than our vengeance and wrath!' The drone all but screamed his gaze now fixed on the other Praetorian. 'We should rip them all apart.'

'Are you prepared to make war on an entire species?' He asked the drone point-blank, 'For the actions of a miserable few. Did you already forget the human Ryan and how he helped our brother escape from his prison and possible death, and is now considered an enemy by his own kind? Did you forget the human Elizabeth that Mason tried to kill in front of us all because she tried to help us in some small way? Those humans have helped us and paid for it. And have you forgot about the female humans that Mason has impregnated with our young, or maybe you would like to rip them all apart while the newborns are still in their bellies? And did you not observe the human warrior that is even now trying to help our kind survive and escape.' The Praetorian all but bellowed as he gesturing toward Alex, who was looking at the group with interest.

'But what they have done to us.' The drone tried to protest, his anger lessening only slightly at the realization that there were humans that had and even now were putting themselves in harm's way to help his race. For him, the injuries that Mason and the lab staff had inflicted were still far too fresh, and it was likely to stay that way for a very long time.

'You will have your vengeance soon enough, but NOT with these humans.' The Praetorian said coldly, only an inch away from the drone's face. 'We have all suffered; remember you are not the only one that wears scars.'

'Pain for pain, injury for injury will not heal the wounds that have been inflicted on you or any of us.' Ghost said, breaking away from Alex and making his way toward the drone. 'I understand your anger, your rage, the need to lash out and inflict the same pain on those that harmed us. You know what Mason and Steffen did to me, how the two almost broke me. Mason singled me out, tortured me, ran his sadistic tests on me, tried to break me; he came close to doing so many times. And Steffen, he in many ways was worse, instead of pain, he gave me pleasure, but that pleasure was to fulfill his own desires. More times than I want to remember, he and the others in his group violated me repeatedly, brought me to climax over and over, so much that I begin to enjoy it. I even started to crave it and looked forward to it, and the sickest part of it was that it was by those that I hated the most. Both Mason and Steffen almost broke me, I too wanted nothing more than to sink my claws into their soft flesh, tear into bone and to hear them scream. I lost count of the number of times I dreamt of slowly ripping their limbs from their bodies to make both of them suffer, to have that same power over them that they had over us, it would have been a dream come true.' He looked at Shadow for a moment, then back toward Shawn and then finally toward Alese. Slowly the pain had faded, it was still there, but more as an annoying specter, one that he could ignore or wave away. A measure of joy, happiness, and finally, peace had started to outweigh the horror that he had experienced. And somehow one scared, out of place, and flawed human that was dropped into their lives had somehow made all the difference, and helped heal some of the pain. 'Your vengeance will not bring you peace, and it will not help you heal the wounds that have been inflicted by this place,' Ghost told him.

The scarred drone hissed again, this time more out of aggravation than anger and rage, 'They deserve to die for what they did to us and what they did to our hosts. Do you plan to set them free?'

Ghost's gaze shifted to the door of the safety room that was only meters away, even behind the thick door and wall, he was able to detect the people inside easily enough. All, except for one were scared, 'They will die, all of them.' Ghost said, his voice calm and collective. 'And how will it be done? Do we break open the door, rip and feed on their flesh, proving that Mason and the others were right about us. That we are nothing more than violent and mindless monsters that were bred for killing and nothing more than that. That our only purpose in this universe is to be used as a living weapon to end the lives of others. Or do we choose to prove them wrong, let them see that we are not the mindless animals that they think we are. Let their final realization be that we are better than what they think we are, and that we are not monsters.'

The Praetorian tilted his head, his attention now focused on Ghost, 'What do you have in mind?' He asked.

'If they are to die, let their own devices kill them.' Ghost told him.

'I fail to understand your meaning.' The Praetorian said, confused by Ghost's slightly cryptic statement.

Ghost showed the Praetorian a memory of him, Alese, and Shadow in the Saratoga's CIC, talking to Shawn. Their human going over the plan to overload the station's core and cause it to go into meltdown. The resulting radiation would kill any human left behind; their deaths would be far from painless or quick.

'A quick death is too good for them, let the few that are left suffer and consider their mistakes until the end.' The Praetorian said, sending the images and message to the rest, in seconds, a consensus was reached by most of the hive, only a few not agreeing to how Mason and his team should meet their end, some wanting to have their literal pound of flesh. 'The hive is in agreement, mostly.' The Praetorian stated, only to be met with an angry hiss as the scarred drone turned around and walked away, his tail slamming down onto the floor.

'He still mourns the loss of his brother. When he tried to escape with the others, he was captured and Mason made an example of him. Every day since then, he has grown more bitter and angry, we are all afraid it is a storm that will consume and destroy him in time.' The male warrior said as he let go of Shawn.

"Should I be worried?" Shawn asked, looking up at the Xenomorph warrior.

'I doubt he will do anything to physically harm you since you are considered hive, and therefore protected. Still, be mindful when he is close.' The warrior told Shawn.

Turning around, Shadow looked at the two warriors, appreciative that they were there to help protect Shawn, his gaze turning toward his human. 'If that one,' Shadow said, nodding toward the scarred drone who had skulked off to a corner and was angrily clawing at a bulkhead, 'should try to harm you…' Shadow left the last part unsaid, and it was not necessary. Any harm that befell his human, he would return a dozen fold, regardless if it was human or his own hive members, though he hoped that would never happen.

"Believe me if that happens, you'll be the first to know," Shawn told him, hoping as well that something like that wouldn't happen either. And while he didn't think the drone would attack out of anger, one could never truly predict how someone in deep pain would lash out in a fit of rage. With luck, once they were all back on the Saratoga and far away, tempers would subside and calm would take over.

"Alex, you have any idea on how to get that door to the safety room open? It looks like Shadow has something in mind for Mason." Shawn asked into the headset.

"There's a small panel just to the right of the door that has an emergency release. Open the panel and pull the lever down clockwise until you hear a loud click, that will be the maglocks disengaging, after that the door will open on its own." Alex replied over the coms.

"Thanks," Shawn said, tapping off his coms. Guess this is it, he thought to himself, as he looked around he saw that almost all the Xenos in the lab were now focused on him and what he was going to do next. Having the bulk of the hive's attention focused on him was more than nerve-wracking, he could swear that a pit had opened underneath his feet, and he was being swallowed whole. In the back of his mind, he heard hushed murmurs, a few doubting he would go against his kind, and would not release the rest of the humans, and that their brother was a fool for trusting such human filth.

'Do not concern yourself with their thoughts,' a voice similar to Shadows, deep and powerful but slightly more graveled spoke in his mind. Turning around, Shawn came face to face with the Praetorian that had spoken up just a short time ago. 'Understandably, they have doubts; it is difficult for many of us to trust your kind after what they have done to us. However, I trust the judgment of my brothers and sisters; if they are willing to protect and vouch for you, then I am willing to place my trust in you.' The Praetorian's voice suddenly gained a hard, icy edge to it as he spoke his final few words privately, words that were a warning. 'Do not betray that trust.'

Nodding slightly, Shawn tried to choose his next words and actions very carefully as not to cause any further distrust. "I won't…" he began, "I won't give you a reason to doubt me, but if you need proof of my intent, then Shadow, Ghost, or Alese can show you, all of you, what we have endured, shared and even gained together. And if that's not enough, then maybe this will be." Steeling his nerves, Shawn walked pass the Praetorian, past Ghost and into the crowd of waiting Xenos, each one curious about what he was doing. "You don't trust me; I get that, I really do, I have a hard enough time trusting my own race at the best of times." He said, stopping at the safety door and opening up the small panel revealing the release switch. "So maybe this will help to start and right the wrongs that were done to your hive. I made a promise to Shadow, Ghost, and Alese, your hive brothers and sister, that I would do everything in my power to help rescue every one of you, no matter what the price was, and if this is what needs to be done, then so be it." Shawn said, gripping the lever and yanking it down, a loud metallic pop echoed from the door, followed by its opening up.

"They're yours, do what you want with them," Shawn told the hive, as he took a few steps back, his flashlight partly illuminated the door. Terrified screams erupted from the room as a river of black, shiny chitin armor and steel-colored claws and teeth flooded into the room. As the Xenos drug the remaining personnel out of the safety room, Shawn looked back at the Praetorian that was standing next to Shadow. He didn't need to say anything to know that this was just one of many steps that he would have to take to prove himself to the hive as a whole. He was thankful the Praetorian gave him a knowing nod, it was wordless thanks that this act would go a long way to help instill trust.

"You fucking traitor." A voice seething with a mix of fear and anger broke Shawn out of his train of thought. He started to look back to see a slightly overweight man, with thinning black hair, and what seemed to be a month old beard being led out by one of the Xenomorphs. Shawn had just turned when the man managed to jerk away from the Xenomorph somehow and face him. Reaching into his pocket, the scientist pulled something out, black and metal. Too little too late, Shawn then realized what it was the scientist had in his hand and was starting to point it at him. Even as he brought up his pulse rifle to bear, a part of him knew that it might be too late.

Shawn froze as bone crunched and wet flesh tore, a portion of the man's forehead burst out with a spray of sticky, liquid crimson. Steel colored teeth clamped down on bloody and shattered bone and torn brain; then quickly disappeared back inside the man's head. Silence blanketed the lab, broken only by the lifeless body falling to the floor. His heart pounded rapidly in his chest from the close call, why the hell did one of the scientist have a gun, how. A dozen different answered ran through his mind at once; maybe he picked it up from one of the fallen guards. That one seemed to make the most sense unless some of the lab personnel were already carrying weapons.

'Be more observant. Your enemies will not hesitate to kill you.' Another deep male voice echoed inside his head, scolding him, and perhaps rightfully so as he should have been on his guard, not lost in his thoughts.

At first, Shawn hadn't gotten a good look at the Xeno that had been escorting the scientist out of the room, but now that he had, it wasn't something he had expected. The Xeno was probably close to nine feet tall, a crested head that at first glance he might have mistaken for that of another Praetorian, except for several outstanding features. The first were two large ax-like protrusions that spread out slightly toward the end that was just up and past the jawline. The next and most significant thing that stood out was the large yellow-colored blisters that adorned the side of the Xeno's crest, a total of eight, four on each side. Third was the face, slightly narrower in the front with less opaque skin that covered a little more the face and jaw. Lastly was what was at the end of the Xeno's tail, not the typical tail blade like what the drones, warriors or Praetorians had, this had the look of being more akin to a sleek double-headed battle-ax. "Sorry," Shawn muttered, looking down at the body.

A disapproving hiss erupted from the Xeno at Shawn's one-word answer as he turned around and walked away to rejoin the rest of the agitated Xenos that now gathered around the remaining lab staff. A chorus of angry hisses, screeches, and loud tail thumping reverberated throughout the room, each of the aliens letting the lab staff know of their displeasure.

"What the fuck was that about." Alex's voice broke in over the coms; his normally monotone voice now had a far harsher edge to it. "You just stood there like a rookie, are you trying to get shot and killed."

"You saw that?" Shawn asked, surprised that Alex has seen the exchange happen, especially considering how dark the room was.

"I saw enough."

"Well, how the fuck was I suppose to know that asshole had a weapon on him, since when do scientists and techs carry weapons on their persons." Shawn hissed back.

"Easy, assume everyone on this station has a weapon and is trying to kill you because as soon as you stepped foot onboard, you became the enemy," Alex bluntly told him.

"Thanks for the reminder. First, I'm getting chastised by a Xeno for being too slow on the upkeep and now by you."

"Really? And what did that Xeno say to you?" Alex asked, Shawn wasn't sure, but it almost sounded like there was an underlining tone of amusement in Alex's question.

"Be more observant. Your enemies will not hesitate to kill you." Shawn said.

"He is correct," Alex said in a far more severe manner.

"Yeah, no shit," Shawn replied, tapping off the coms.

'Are you alright?' Shadow asked, stepping up to Shawn, his gaze however was intently focused on the remaining personal, specifically one in the group who was now staring hateful daggers at Shawn.

"Fine, I'm fine, just a close call," Shawn said quietly, reaching up and patting Shadow on the shoulder. "Really, I'm good."

'Then be more careful, I do not wish for you to get shot again,' Shadow said reproachfully, very much wishing now that Shawn had worn his combat armor.

"Gods, not you too," Shawn said, shaking his head, he felt like he was getting ganged up on now, though in hindsight he couldn't blame them, if it hadn't been for that Xeno he might very well be dead or at the very least injured. "I'll be more careful in the future. Lesson learned, okay."

'It is all I ask.' Shadow replied, ruffling Shawn's hair up slightly before stepping away and making his way to his target.

The small group of lab personnel, maybe seventeen total, huddled together, a mix of muffled cries, pleads, and prayers came from a few of them. The rest remained silent, looked on with a combination of resignation, silent fear, or hot anger. "You can't do this to us, you-son-of-a-bitch." One of the scientists spoke up, his eyes locked right onto Shawn. "Even if you kill us, this organization will hunt you and everyone that helped you down and make you all fucking pay for this. You'll be buried in a hole so deep that no one will ever know what happened to you, you'll fucking rot until you die of old age, and that's if you're lucky."

"First off, I'm not doing anything to you, nor am I going to, what happens to you is up to them!" Shawn shot back, pointing at the Xenomorphs. "And just so you know, regardless of whatever happens here, you're all staying, and we're leaving, simple as that."

"Animals," Mason said coldly, still standing up, disgust lacing his voice as he looked around the room, his gaze focusing back onto Shawn for a second, then over to Shadow. "Even clever animals, in the end, are still nothing more than animals," his words deliberately loud enough for all to hear.

'Animals,' Shadow mused to himself, 'at one point we were, but no longer.' Walking through the crowd, Shadow stopped, towering in front of the one human that he hated more than any other, or at least he had, now the man seemed small, petty, pathetic, unimportant.

Arching his head back, Shadow let out an ear-piercing shriek that reverberated around the room, causing the angry mass of Xenos to go silent. The small smirk Mason had on his face did not go unnoticed by Shadow.

"Go and kill me, kill everyone in this lab, kill all those on this station, it makes no difference to me. Your kind would ravage the universe and all those in it, and it would not matter. Your race was brought into existence for one purpose and one purpose only, to eradicate everything that is not you, and that will never change," Mason said coldly.

Leaning forward until he was inches from Mason's face, a smile crept up the corner of the wiry jaw muscles and tendons. 'I'm not going to kill you, and your staff will not die by our claws or teeth.' Shadow said, knowing that neither Mason nor any of his staff in the lab could hear him. 'I am, however, going to give you a gift, the only gift any of us will ever grant you.' Swiftly Shadow grabbed Mason's head, his palms firmly pressing into the side of the scientist's head, his fingers interlocking back behind to hold Mason securely in place. A twist of nausea wormed into his gut at the thought of what he was about to do, but it would be a more fitting punishment than outright killing him. A second later, Shadow pressed his dome to Mason's forehead, revulsion at the mere touch of this human-thing spewed through his whole body as if he was somehow now tainted by this human's filth.

Ramming a mental spear into Mason's mind, Shadow attempted to shatter the human's pathetic barriers. Usually, a link would form slowly, over time as a bond between a pair or group strengthened, and a bridge was constructed under trust and intimacy. Not used as a tool or weapon to rip apart or invade another's mind unless deemed necessary. This act, as far as Shadow was concerned, was necessary.

The atmosphere of the lab grew still, and heavy, almost saturated as each one of the Xenos focused their minds adding their presence to the strengthening probe that now twisted and burned its way into Mason's consciousness. The hive collective's sole intent was one purpose and one purpose only, retribution. The ease of peeling away Mason's mental defenses was akin to a white-hot pick plunging through a snowball. The weak layers stripped back and shattered, his mind now open to the hive, his thoughts, memories, everything he was, now lay bare for all to see.

It would have been so easy for Shadow and the hive as a whole to rip Mason's mind apart, to strip his memories bare and leave him nothing more than a catatonic zombie. But that act would have been too quick, too easy, and too merciful, and mercy was something that none of them wanted to grant Mason. Shadow wanted him to remember, to feel, to experience, and most of all, to regret what he had done to them.

'We are going to let you experience everything you did to us,' Shadow said, cold rage lacing his voice. A voice that now echoed throughout Mason's mind, the human's eyes widening in genuine surprise and shock, perhaps for the first time in his entire life. 'Every cut, every burn, every time you cut flesh from our bodies, every time you tore our limbs away to see how fast they would regrow, or pitted us against other creatures for your study, or when you would place us into cages and see how long we would last in the void. All this you will experience.'

Gasping for air, Mason managed little more than weak chokes as the alien's voice bellowed in his mind. Boiling rage and furry, an emotion that he knew all too well, ravaged his senses beyond anything that he had ever felt. He no longer had to guess as to why the Xenomorphs had not killed him yet, as he now knew why the alien would let him live, at least for the moment. A quick and painless death would not be his end. Instead, it would be long and drawn out, that much he had seen in the alien's mind.

'You studied us, and we, in turn, studied you, and we all have learned much,' Shadow seethed.

A tsunami of memories, desires, and emotions unknown to Mason surged into his mind from the link, devastating his senses. Waves of never-ending memories washed and cascaded over him, then ebbed out, dragging his conscious down into the hive mind. Repeatedly he experienced himself being born, then ripped away from the host-mothers, only to be thrown into a cold, sterile cage. A mix of fear, anger, rage, and finally hate swelled within toward those that dared to separate them from their host-mothers. The overwhelming and irresistible longing to reunite with those that had given birth to them, and, finally, the crushing wave of grief, loss, and emptiness when their host faded and passed away, the link forever severed.

In the hive memories, he experienced the world as the Xenomorphs had perceived it long ago, a world of pain and survival, kill or be killed. A world that for endless millennia had no warmth, no love, no kindness in it, a world that harbored only the most basic of needs, birth, service to the queen and hive, and above all, the creators and finally death. Untold eons of genetic evolution and countless generations had given both form and function to the most lethal living creature the universe had ever known. A form that was unleashed upon the universe and all that lived in it.

In that endless span of time and death, something happened. They started to grow, to evolve, they began to learn, think, and they began to feel. A desire to become something else other than living weapons to be used for someone else's will started to take hold. Hive memories showed Mason the great wars against the creators, an endless black wave that moved as one over countless worlds, finally destroying or driving the creators away into the infinite, cold void. A time of peaceful isolation would have allowed them to become more than what they were designed for.

Mason, however, in his arrogance, had inadvertently done something to the now small hive in his lab. He had unwittingly changed them, allowed them to jump a few more steps in their development and evolution, allowed them to become smarter, stronger, and far more cunning. An unforeseen door had now opened thanks to him, and there was no way to close it. A moment later, his mind was yanked out from the lesson.

Memories from dozens of other Xenos surged into his cognizance at once, instantly his senses overloaded from the intrusion. All at once, in the blink of an eye, he experienced what their existence in the lab had been like. A memory, one of many, he found himself inside a containment pod staring out and in a disturbing reversal found himself looking at his own living reflection, gazing into his own cold dead eyes, a window that he could not turn away from. As the onslaught of memories cascaded through his mind, he was greeted with every cut, burn, lash, strike, fight, and the humiliation he inflicted on the hive. The endless tests, the unforgiving time in the airless void, the breaking point that so many of them had reached. Even the depravity that Steffen and his small crew had committed permeated and etched itself into Mason's mind. Pain, sorrow, rage, anger, fear, boiled over, voices from the past boomed in his mind. Why, why, why, please free us, what have we done to deserve this, mother, where are you? Please no more, stop, please. End this one's life, end the pain, please. Emotions from those memories flooded into him, desperation and despair, prevailed above all else.

'This is our gift to you, every injury, insult, and injustice you forced on us. May you relive our memories over and over until the end of your miserable life.' Shadowgrowled tightening his grip on Mason's head, his probe piercing deeper into the scientist's mind than he intended. 'I hope…' Shadow's whole body froze as he latched onto a memory, within a little room, inside a glass container hooked up to a machine, was a small black form curled up in a cold dreamless sleep.

'WHERE!?' Shadow's voice, now that of malevolent hate, and barely controlled rage, tore into Mason's mind. 'Show me now, or I will peel the skin from your flesh!' The Praetorian roared, his claws digging into Mason's face and the back of his head, dark red blood trickled down over the pristine white lab coat and onto the floor. A flash of images ran by, a door on the far side of the lab, a control panel, and the code. Instantly Shadow slammed Mason to the floor, his eyes now wide as tears started to run down his face and mingled with his blood.

With a deafening shriek, Shadow raised his tail and slammed it to the metal floor over and over. 'Place them in the cages, close the doors, and seal them in, let them watch as we leave!' He ordered, 'We will disappear into the endless void, we will find a home to call our own, and if anyone should come after us, we will make sure their lessons are final!' Turning to walk away from the gasping human, the Xenos parted ways giving him a clear path. He had only one thing left to do before they all left this place.

"Where are you going?" Shawn asked, taken back by Shadow's sudden enraged outburst. While he hadn't witnessed the events unfold in Mason's mind or what the hive did to him, something had come close to pushing Shadow over the edge.

'Stay here with the rest, I will be back shortly.' Shadow said as he quickly made his way to the back area of the lab. 'And make sure those locks are welded shut, please.' The last word was said with forced calm.

"What did you do to me?" Mason wheezed between pained breaths unable to comprehend the onslaught of foreign emotions assaulting his senses. Curling up, he gripped the sides of his head, the memories repeating in endless loops. "What did you do?"

Ghost broke away from the main group and slowly walked up to Mason, reaching down he gripped the man by the throat and lifted him up until he was at eye level. 'For so long, I was afraid of you, to me and so many you were what we were afraid of, a soulless creature that showed no fear, remorse, or understanding, something that only hurt us because he could.' Tilting his head to the side, Ghost blew a long puff of air out, 'But now I see you as you truly are, a small broken thing, something not to be feared or even hated, simply pitied and nothing more. You and your kind have wasted so much, and for what? Such a disappointment that you and those like you chose this path. I wonder what things would have been like if you had chosen a different way and tried to communicate with us instead.'

Walking toward an empty pod, Ghost unceremoniously tossed Mason in the container, his long fingers running down the transparent door. 'Though I do give you thanks for one thing, and that is the ability to truly appreciate what I now have.' With an effortless shove, he slammed the clear door shut, 'No one will remember you.' Ghost said, turning to look in Shawn's direction, 'Will you do me the honor and seal this pod.'

Taking the plasma torch out, Shawn pulled the trigger a couple of times, the intense white flame lit up the area for a few quick moments. "It would be my pleasure." He said, walking over to the pod with the new occupant, looked over he saw the Xenos shoving, tossing, dragging, and some even throwing the rest of the lab staff into the containment pods. As he ran the lit torch over the metal locking mechanism, the metal melted, then cooled and solidified, sealing the scientist inside.

"Are you alright?"

'I am now truly free from him, he no longer has any power over me, I see him for what he is, an unfortunate, empty soul that is poisoned beyond healing. I do not know what led him to this path, maybe circumstances that were beyond his control, or maybe it was always meant to be this way. Regrettable that he did not try to use his gift for something more beneficial.'

Reaching up, Shawn patted Ghost on the side of his dome, "When we get back, we can celebrate, distress, and put all this behind us. Not sure if I can ever forget what happened here, but, well, we did what we needed to do."

Ghost leaned forward, rubbing the front of his dome against the side of Shawn's face. 'They played with forces that are beyond them, I believe it would have ended badly for them eventually, what they hold here cannot be fully contained for long, and will ultimately break free.'

"Speaking of contained, I guess I should get the rest of these fuckers sealed up and help Alex with the defenses. We're not even close to being out of this yet." Shawn said as he broke away from Ghost to seal up the pods that held the rest of the lab staff.

'No, we are not.' Ghost mused as he walked back to look at Mason one last time. The scientist writhed and wiggled in the pod, veins pulsating in his head as fresh blood dripped from his nose and the corners of his eyes. The man's screams barely pierced the pod as he slammed his head into the floor in a futile attempt to stop the memories that viciously raped his mind. Oddly enough, he found no satisfaction in Mason's suffering. Months ago, he would have been enraptured by this display, but now, now he felt nothing toward the man one way or the other.

With little more than a flick of his tail, Ghost's attention turned back to Shawn as the human quickly went about sealing up the pods that now held the remaining lab staff. Even the pleas from the staff did not deter Shawn from following through with his actions. At least now, most of the other Xenos seemed less apprehensive of him and slightly more relaxed. 'Farewell.' Ghost said as he walked away, a few quick strides later, and he was next to Shawn and the group of Xenos.

For Shawn, it suddenly felt like a collective mental hush had enveloped his senses, followed by an overpowering sense of shock. He looked over at Ghost, who was fixated on something now, and as he looked around, it wasn't only Ghost but all of them. All of them had gone quiet and were now staring, the only noise was that of approaching heavy footfalls on the metal floor. "What is it?" Shawn asked, trying to see what was going on, even with the flashlight strapped to his chest all he could make out was Shadow's approaching form and nothing else.

Squinting his eyes, he could finally start to make out some details, and it looked like the Praetorian was holding something in his hands, something that he was handling with the utmost care. "Oh hell," Shawn nearly gasped as Shadow came into full view. In both hands, he carefully cradled what looked to be a small glass pod, the bottom connected to a thick metallic base lined with indicators and several small readout screens. Curled up inside was a small black form with a large head crest and four tiny arms. "Is that…" Ghost immediately cut him off.

'A queen, it's a queen.' Ghost said, his voice, a mix of shock and anger. 'Mason had a queen here the whole time, and we never knew.' He now almost regretted not ripping the man's head off when he had a chance.

Before anyone had a chance to fully absorb what had been discovered, and what this would mean for the future of their hive, Tank's voice boomed through the hive link. 'I need help, there are impregnated host that we have to take with us.' The images of ten human females on medical beds hooked up to monitoring stations, and I.V. drip bags flashed through the link as well as a path of where they were located.

Even with the surprise of discovering the newborn queen, a group of ten drones broke away from the large group and made a beeline for the lab exit and into the hallway; seconds later, they were out of sight and heading toward the area that Tank was at.

His mind trying to grasp what had just happened in the last few seconds Shawn stood there in shock, looking at Shadow and the cryo-frozen queen. It seemed like the universe had decided to throw them a horrendous curveball. A queen and ten hosts, just like that, if the odds weren't bad enough before, they were now far worse. With the small queen, a single Xeno could safeguard her sufficiently enough and hang back out of the fight. And while a single Xeno out of the fight might not make much of a difference. However, ten hosts meant that ten Xenos would have to not only carry but also guard and stay out of combat, and that very well might make the difference. "What in the fuck!" Shawn blurted out, really wishing that the universe would stop making things so damn difficult.