Aliens: Beyond Time and Space

Ripley picks up her motion tracker "I'm not reading any movement."

"That's because anything caught in the barrier is immobilized by the threads like a fly in a spider's web." Explained the verdant haired youth as he turns back to the threads, and sees that more lines have started to tighten

"We've got more of them! They're getting snagged all over the place!"

Ripley slings her weapon over her shoulder and grabs Newt's hand

"Najenda. We need to leave this area again, like right now!"

"Cool it, Ripley! Nothing's getting through the barrier. Right, Lubbock?" Night Raid's leader looks at her male subordinate.

"That's right." he assured "Once they're caught, all they can do is struggle until the threads begin to cut into their flesh-"

Twang!

Suddenly, the strands in front of Lubbock began to snap loose and go slack.

"What the hell?" Lubbock winds the loose threads back to him. He looks at some of the strands' severed ends. They're melted and dripping with yellowish fluids

"These are some of my strongest threads. What kind of liquid can burn through them like that?"

"Acid" answers a terrified Ripley "Acid for blood."

Blip! Blip!

The motion tracker in her hand began beeping

Blip! Blip! Blip! …

Its view screen showed ten contact dots, then twenty, then thirty with more increasing until half the screen was covered with tracking dots.

Everyone grabbed their Imperial Arms, before turning to Najenda for instructions. She looks over at Ripley

"Alright Ripley. We'll do it your way. We're abandoning this wreck. Mine, take Pumpkin and cover us. Su, you and Tatsumi go with her and back her up. The rest of you, come and help me prepare the Air Manta for take off!"

"Wait!" Ripley called for everyone to stop. "You can't hold them off with hand to hand and a single gun, your melee weapons will disintegrate from the acid. I'll go with Mine. The rest of you, load those crates and come pick us up when you're finished."

She lets go of Newt's hand

"Newt, stay close to Najenda. Do whatever she says. Alright?"

The little girl quietly nods, and Najenda picks her up with her prosthetic arm.

"C'mon kid! This way!" she says while making her way towards the flying Danger Beast.

"Harrigan, go help put Najenda" he ordered the Lieutenant. However, he refuses and instead stayed behind

"Ripley, there's one thing you don't know about me" he said while activating his shoulder-mounted plasma cannon and wearing the mask that guides it

"I ain't one for following orders"

Ripley smirks at him as she went to where her jacket lay and slipped it back on. She readies her pulse rifle and checks the ammo counter showing 99 rounds in the magazine.

She remembers the grenade launcher was loaded and ready too, so she looks at the flamethrower and frowns.

It was still empty, and she had no way of refilling it.

Kapow! Kapow! Kapow!

Shots rang out from outside the tent, at the edge of camp. Realizing time was running out, the former Warrant Officer rushed to the ammo crate, and grabbed some spare pulse-rifle clips before pocketing them and running out to rendezvous with Mine and the Lieutenant.

"It's about time you came! These bastards just keep coming!" Mine yelled out as she kept firing at the approaching horde "I counted at least forty of them before giving up, and began shooting."

Ripley looked out ahead of her, and once again had to fight the urge to run away.

There they were, charging across the landscape between the Camp and the wreckage, came the Aliens. They scuttled over one another, driven by the single-minded purpose of storming the campsite.

"Don't let them get close!" Rata-ta-ta-ta! Ripley steadied her pulse-rifle and opened fire, silently praying she had enough rounds to keep them at bay.

"Don't have to tell Me twice!" Mine responded as she continued to blast away at the oncoming Aliens.

While Ripley was spraying rounds everywhere and reloading, Mine was quickly selecting a target and squeezing Pumpkin's trigger. All of her shots were accurate, with every spirit-powered round blowing apart any Alien that got hit.

Harrigan also did his part blowing out hordes of Xenomorphs coming at him. Whoever gets closer to him gets finished off by his retractable spear. Ripley observed the weapon and learned that the Xenomorph's blood isn't doing anything bad to his weapon, which amazed her. Nevertheless, she can't afford to get distracted.

But with every Xenomorph that went down screeching, two more took its place bringing the horde closer to their prey.

"We're losing ground!" Ripley called out "We can't hold them off for much longer!"

"Don't worry!" Mine responded "The closer they get, the more powerful Pumpkin's shots become!"

She began taking notice of her Imperial Arm's strengthening recoil, causing more Aliens being blown apart behind every Alien she shot at.

The Alien horde began to split down the middle and circle around the sides.

"They're trying to flank us! Everyone spread formation. Ripley, take the left side! Mine, you take the right!" Harrigan instructed

"You don't have to tell me," Ripley affirmed, reloading the last magazine she brought with her.

"Yeah! I got it!" answered Mine, trying hard to maintain her aim as Pumpkin's recoil and shots grew stronger and stronger.

Ripley focuses on the Aliens coming to her side, unleashing a storm of pulse-rifle fire. Her last magazine ran dangerously low but seeing them bunched up together gave her an idea.

She switches to the grenade launcher and fires off a round

Plunk!

Kaboom!

Five Aliens at the front of the pack were instantly blown to pieces. And the remaining Xenomorphs had to pause in order to maneuver around the flames left behind by the grenade's detonation. This momentary distraction allowed Harrigan to give her a supporting fire, picking off any stragglers on her side

Ripley worked the pump-action and fired the remaining grenades. The barrage she sent resulted in her side completely blocked off by fire and deep smoking craters, buying her time as the Aliens looked for a way through the devastation.

She inspected the pulse-rifle's ammo counter. 15 rounds left then it's empty. That's enough bullets to kill about a handful of Aliens, but many more would remain.

Ripley looked behind her, pondering the idea of her going back to camp and fetching more ammo, before Mine could get overwhelmed. But she was startled, when a man wearing a white and silver suit of armor appeared next to her.

"Ripley! It's Me, Tatsumi!" The new member of Night Raid called out from inside his armor's helmet "I'm wearing my Imperial Arm, Incursio. I've come to help!"

"I've told you before! Fighting them up close is a bad idea!" Ripley warned.

Tatsumi ignored her, and turned around to pick up the trunk of a fallen tree he'd brought from the nearby forest

"I heard you before! So check this out!" He lifts the tree, and hurls it at the Aliens.

The tree lands on a trio of Xenomorphs that made it past the wall of flames Ripley made, crushing them.

"Incursio grants me immense physical strength as long as I wear its armor. I can throw large objects without effort!"

Ripley looks in wonder as Tatsumi picks up another tree and sends it flying towards the Aliens. This time the tree starts rolling as it lands, tripping up the pack of Xenomorphs and slowing them down as they scatter to avoid the incoming projectile.

Ripley looks over at the pile of fallen trees Tatsumi stockpiled for throwing

"Tatsumi! Concentrate your aim at one side of the pack! Try to force them over to Mine's range. Mine! I'm low on ammo, so Tatsumi's gonna send more targets your way! Think you can manage!?"

Mine gleefully smiles and answers "Leave them to me! I can handle these bastards, no problem!"

"Ripley, merge into my position and take my spear. Their acid won't do shit on it" Harrigan called her as he activated his retractable spear and passed it to her.

It was lightweight, but strong enough to withstand their blood. Perhaps she can utilize it to keep the Xenomorphs out of the Lieutenant's position.

Pumpkin was now powerful enough to send Mine stepping backwards with its recoil, and her shots were destroying four Aliens at a time.

Her rate of fire started to decrease as she struggled to keep the Imperial Arm steady and accurate. One of the Aliens at the front of the horde took advantage of the slowing barrage and dodged around a shot.

The Xenomorph was a few yards away from Mine, when it quickly jumped at her with a pouncing motion.

"Mine! Look Out!" Ripley called out in a panic.

The pink haired sniper had a split second to see a mass of claws, teeth and slime coming straight at her.

Suddenly, the Alien was sent tumbling a few feet away, after Tatsumi jumped in front of Mine, and delivered a left hook into the monster's face. It recovered instantly, then faced him, hissing viciously.

Before the Alien can attack Tatsumi, Ripley aimed her pulse-rifle, and shot it till it stopped moving

"We're out of Time! We have to get out of here, now!" As if in answer, another voice calls out from above

"Up Here!"

Ripley and Tatsumi look up to see Najenda, Newt and the other members of Night Raid on top of the flying Air Manta, hovering a few stories over them.

"Su! Get them on board!" ordered Najenda, and Susanoo quickly jumped down, picked up Ripley in his arms, then leapt back on to the Air Manta.

"Lieutenant, grab the line" Lubbock called out as he drops Harrigan a line from above, allowing the latter to grab on as he picks the spear and splashes its blood away from it. Leone then pulled him up until he's out of reach from the Aliens

"Mine! Grab on to me!" Tatsumi grabs Mine, and picks her up in a bridal hold, before taking a similar leap towards the Air Manta.

An Alien pounces towards them to intercept, but Mine quickly fires Pumpkin, and blows it away right as it reaches for Tatsumi's leg and rakes its claws on his boot's shin protector.

Once Tatsumi and Mine land safely aboard the Air Manta, Najenda tugs its reins to make it fly higher.

Another Alien makes a jump at them, and latches on to the Danger Beast's side. It crawls up on top and makes ready to attack, but was suddenly set ablaze when Leone threw a lit Molotov cocktail at it.

"That's for ruining my Dinner! You Piece of Shit!" the angry blonde yells in fury as the Xenomorph screeched in burning agony.

While the Alien was distracted, Akame quickly ran at it, and delivered a roundhouse kick to the face. It stumbled over the side, and fell off the Air Manta in a burning, screaming heap. The other Aliens below,scattered as their torched brethren hit the ground.

Shreee!

A loud, piercing shriek echoed across the land and the Aliens charged back North, towards the same direction where the shriek came from.

From atop the Air Manta, Ripley and the others looked down to see what's happening.

"Where are they going now?" Chelsea asks.

Ripley sits beside her with Newt sitting in her lap

"They're going wherever their Queen tells them to go. She's the one that made that noise and called them back. They follow her will and orders, whatever that may be."

Akame looks at her "Was she the monster Newt showed us, using Spectator's Illusion Sight?"

Ripley nods her head "She's the one who leads the Aliens. She's bigger, stronger, and smarter than the ones you've just seen. She also lays the eggs that allow her species to breed and grow."

Leone, Mine and Chelsea place a hand on their chests with disgust and sickening fear, thinking about when Ripley explained during her briefing, the facehugging and chest bursting process with which Aliens are born.

"The Queen and her eggs are the center of this infestation." continued Ripley "As long as either of them exist, the Aliens will swarm over this entire planet. One living host at a time."

"Now you know how much of a danger you'll be in right now if we left them unchecked" Harrigan fired back at Najenda, who's at a loss of words right now considering what the Aliens are capable of