Aliens: Beyond Time and Space

Atmosphere Processing Station

Hadley's Hope

South of the Empire

"Alright! Time to wake up, you two!" Mine raised up her Imperial Arm, and fired two rounds into the air"

Kapow! Kapow!

Two things happened, the shooter stumbled back from the unexpectedly large recoil of Pumpkin's shots, which is clearly something she's already used to. However, something made a loud ear splitting shrieking noise from inside the nearby forest

SHREEAAH!

"What the hell was that?" cringed the Genius Sniper "Was that the Danger Beast, I was hunting before? Must have scared it off."

For good measure, Mine fired more rounds into the trees Kapow!

Taking notice of Pumpkin's recoil getting weaker, she stops

"Okay. Either it's dead, or a long way from here. The others will have heard those shots and come running to see what happened."

She looks down and notices the woman and little girl haven't woken up.

"Don't tell me…"

Mine quickly reached down and checked their breathing and pulse. She stands back up and sighs in relief

"Phew! You both are still alive, at least. But I still don't understand why you won't wake up. Better wait for Najenda to get here so we can figure out what to do with you."

She looks down at them again and examines to see who these people might be. The woman was tall, around Najenda's age perhaps older, with dark brown hair in a slightly messy state, and her pants and shirt were covered in dirt and sweat.

The little girl was pretty young, about 12 years older, had blonde hair and her overalls had some weird slime all over it.

"Yuck! What has this kid been crawling through, to end up covered in so much snot?" Mine wondered in disgust.

"Mine!"

She turns around to see who called her name, and saw Akame walking up to her from the western area.

"Are you alright?" Akame asked worriedly "When I heard the shots, I thought you were under attack!"

"I'm fine Akame." Mine assured "Just trying to signal everyone to come here fast."

But the crimson-eyed assassin persisted "Are you sure? On my way here, I heard something scream, then you fired some more shots."

Night Raid's sharpshooter looked back at the forest, and began slinging Pumpkin across her back

"That was nothing. Some Danger Beast I was trying to hunt. It seemed to have gotten away though, and I was never able to see what it looked like."

"So where are the others?" Mine asked, changing the subject "I thought they'd be on their way here?"

Akame shrugged "I don't know. I was already on my way, because I wanted you to take a look at what I've found."

She unslung a large, odd-looking rifle off her shoulder and offered it to her Teammate.

"Wow!" Mine gasped excitedly as she took hold of the weapon that was held out in front of her

"What kind of gun is this? I've never seen anything like it!"

"I don't know Mine. I was hoping you would know." explained Akame "It was lying under some debris, within my search zone."

She inches closer to her pink haired comrade and spoke in a whisper. "I had a suspicion that this might be what caused the explosion. And that it might be something the people from this place were working on. Maybe it's an Imperial Arm, or a weapon that can rival one?"

Mine holds up the firearm to eye level and begins examining it

"No. I don't think it's an Imperial Arm. If it was, it would try to sync with either you or me to see if it was compatible. Then the both of us would have felt the rejection effect. As for whether it's strong enough to rival one, that's something we'll have to test out later. Preferably in a safe environment."

She shows Akame the weapon's back end and two grips

"What I can say for sure, is that it's not even a single gun. It's two guns, cleverly strung together to form one. They're tied together at this end here and another at the base of each barrel. As for what they tied it with, it seems they used some sort of bonding strip."

"Why would someone tie two firearms together?" Akame wondered aloud.

"For the extra firepower, of course!" explained Mine "Two rifles as big as these, are too heavy to hold in each hand. Better to combine them and use both arms and a shoulder strap for steady aiming."

She hoisted the weapon and maintained a firing stance. Akame side stepped out of the way..

Anyone caught in front of Mine wielding that, would most likely face devastating overkill.

"Whoever thought of this, must be a genius like me. I wish I could have met him."

"Hey, you two!" Mine and Akame turn their heads to see their commander Najenda calling out, while running towards them from the east area

"What's going on!? Are you both okay!?"

Following behind her was Chelsea, Tatsumi in his Incursio armor, and Leone in her Lionelle form. Akame noticed that Tatsumi had what looks like a jacket tied his waist and Leone seemed nervous for some reason.

"We're fine Commander!" Mine called back "We just found a couple of things, we'd like to show you!"

Najenda and the other Night Raid members gathered around the woman and child that Mine found.

"So, we've finally found survivors." said their leader "And a mysterious weapon, as well. I think we're making some real progress in this investigation."

Akame speaks up

"But these people haven't woken up and we don't know why."

Najenda kneels down over the woman. She lays her out along her back and begins checking for wounds, signs of fever, and if there's labored breathing. She turns and does the same for the girl

"It's not poison. And there's no obvious wounds on either of them. I'd say it's exhaustion. Whatever they been through, drained their strength and made them faint." She concluded "They may need a day or two of bed rest, before waking."

"But, Boss!" Leone said nervously "What about that place I found earlier? What if we don't have that kind of time?"

Mine looked at Leone, perplexed "What place? What did you find, Leone?"

Leone hesitated to talk, so Najenda chose her words carefully and answered

"She's found the other people that resided here. They…didn't make it."

Taking the hint, Mine solemnly abandoned her line of questioning. Instead, she turns to Tatsumi and Chelsea.

"And what have you losers found on your search? Cause all I see are a bunch of empty hands!" she taunted.

"Oh. Just a few boxes, full of treasure." Chelsea answers nonchalantly. Mine looks at her in disbelief.

"Chelsea's found three crates." Najenda corrected "Two of them contained odd tools and equipment. The third was stuffed full of ammunition to some kind of weapon. Maybe to the one you're carrying Mine."

Mine thoughtfully looks down at the gun combination she's still holding. She then looks up at Tatsumi, and bursts out laughing after seeing the jacket tied around his waist.

"What's that Tatsumi?" she jeered "Did you do a little thrift shopping while searching inside the building. I gotta say, that jacket is a small improvement over that dumb vest you always wear!"

Tatsumi ignored her, and approached the unconscious woman lying in front of him. He deactivates Incursio's armor, and it dematerializes off of him. As he bends down to observe the woman's face, his own face lit up with recognition.

"Boss! I've seen this woman before!"

He unties the jacket from his waist, reaches into its pocket and hands Najenda the card he pulled out. Night Raid's leader began reading the information on both sides of the card. She looks down at the woman, back to the card, and makes a smirk

"Great work, Tatsumi! You just confirmed that this woman, Ellen Ripley might be just the person who can explain all that happened here."

Mine frowns after seeing Tatsumi receiving praise

"Why's that Ma'am? Who exactly is this woman? Ellen Ripley, I mean."

Najenda slips the card in her pocket and lights another cigarette. She looks towards the west at the setting sun and clears her throat to speak

"I really don't know Mine, but I have a hunch that Ellen here might have our answers. I'll explain more back at base camp. Right now we need to gather our findings and bring them back with us. Akame, you and Mine stay here and guard these two. Leone and Tatsumi, the two of you will accompany Chelsea back to her sector, and start moving those crates to camp. I've lit the signal fire, so Su and Lubbock should be here momentarily. Get Su to help you out. Once you're done, come back here with stretchers to carry Ellen and the little girl."

She reaches her normal arm out to Mine expectantly, and the genius sniper reluctantly hands her leader the combination firearm.

"I'll hold onto this and keep it safe. We don't exactly know the kind of devastation this gun can unleash. Lubbock and I will scout near the other buildings, to find a way inside for tomorrow's search. Now move out everyone! I want us all back at camp by nightfall."

Back at the vehicle, the gunshots had jolted Harrigan awake, followed by the ear-splitting screech that disoriented him momentarily.

Shit, it's coming from the East

He immediately got up off his makeshift bed and hastily placed the parts back to where it came from, so as not to arouse any suspicion. He knows that any changes in the surroundings would make them suspect that someone was recently here, and from the looks of Chelsea earlier, she's not stupid enough to even overlook those changes.

I need to leave fast or they'll start combing every corner of the place looking for me

With everything in place, Harrigan left the vehicle and hides behind the littered wreckage of the dropship as three people soon appeared from the east.

"It's that girl again, and this time she brought two more people with her as I thought." Harrigan muttered "Wait... this guy's wearing an armor of some sort. Looks light enough considering he's moving around with ease, and this woman... are those cat ears? And she has claws too! What the hell is this world?"

From there, he sees Chelsea, along with two other people; a man wearing a silver and white full-body armor, and a blonde woman with a lion-like motif. They entered the vehicle for a minute, then left carrying three crates each, with the lion-like woman carrying the heaviest.

"Thank God they're just picking up cargo. It's already pointless to conduct another search at nightfall."

Harrigan waited for thirty minutes more, before confirming that they won't return to make another search. He returns to the vehicle to take another rest, for good.

Maybe they'll stay here a little longer. I'll have to ask help from them he thought of that as he drifts into slumber once more

Night Raid Base Camp

Hadley's Hope

South of the Empire

The following morning, all of Night Raid's members gathered in front of the camp's central tent. Inside the large tent, they placed the Colony sign and Atmosphere Processor sign on one side. The other side held the three crates that Chelsea found. The side opposite the tent's entrance had Ripley's jacket draped over a locker that held the weapon, Akame found. In the center rests Ripley and Newt on small sleeping cots.

"Hieh!"

Suddenly Ripley jerks herself awake and lets out a small yelp. She looks around, panicked and disoriented.

After seeing no immediate threat, Ripley began to slow her breathing and try to collect her thoughts.

Where the hell am I? What the hell happened? she concentrated hard to remember.

To her horror she was able to recount past events like it was yesterday

The Nostromo,

The Alien,

The death of her crew,

The ship's destruction and her elimination of the creature.

Ripley stifles a sob, as she went over recent events.

57 years, drifting through space.

The passing of her daughter,

Her company's inquiry and the Colonial Marines' expedition to the Hadley Colony on LV-426.

Finally, she recalled her last moments.

The Aliens overran the Colony, Newt was the only survivor. The Marines fought the Aliens, both sides suffered heavy losses, and Newt was captured. I went to rescue Newt, and then destroyed the Alien nest. Their Queen chased us, we were about to escape on the dropship…

And that was all, Ripley can remember. Everything after that was blank.

"Mmm… mm" Ripley looked beside her, and saw Newt laying in a cot right next to hers, mumbling in her sleep.

Ripley got up and sat at the edge of her cot, and began to calmly study her surroundings

"I don't know where we are, but at least we're alive. We made it somehow."

She looks down, and noticed her clothes were gone and that she and Newt are wearing large robes. She also smelled soap and shampoo coming from the both of them.

Someone stripped us, bathed us, and laid us here to rest.

She found her clothes, folded neatly in a box beneath her cot. After slipping into her pants and shirt, Ripley noticed her jacket was hanging over a metal locker at one end of the tent. Her heart skipped and her blood ran cold when she remembered the last time she seen that jacket.

It was dropped onto the Atmosphere Processor's elevator platform, during her attempt to rescue Newt.

She walked over to a side opening of the tent and peered out.

"Oh No!" she quickly bit her fist in an attempt to keep her screams from escaping.

In the distance, visible by the first morning light, stood the terraforming colony of LV-426. Ripley turned around and made ready to grab the still sleeping Newt and find somewhere to run. While doing so, she shifted her gaze at the tent's entrance and saw several people standing outside the loose flaps. She instinctively froze and after seeing no one notice her, crept to one side of the tent to avoid being seen.

Who are these people? she wondered They can't be a rescue team, no one's wearing any Marine uniform. And they aren't Weyland-Yutani, otherwise, me and Newt would've been in hyper sleep chambers aboard a starship bound for Earth. Not sleeping here, in some cozy tent…

In the end, Ripley decided it didn't mattered. As long as they have a way to get off planet

They wouldn't have believed what I told them anyway. She convinced herself, as she began to quietly search the tent for a weapon

Might as well persuade them with something else.

She instantly recognized the boxes that the Colonial Marines used for storing equipment, sitting across from where she stood.

Ripley took another look at the entrance and can see the people in front are busy listening to some woman at their center speaking to them. The woman was tall, lean, had short silver hair, one purple colored eye with a patch on the other, wore a black business suit and a mechanical right arm.

Seeing an opportunity, Ripley quickly stepped towards the boxes and began opening them

"Come on, please be carrying a gun. I'll take anything, a pulse rifle, flamethrower or both!"

The first box contained pulse rifle ammo, with half the box filled with loose 10mm explosive tip caseless cartridges and the other half in preloaded 99 round magazine clips. Atop the clips sat a small box of M40 grenades, about two dozen in total. It was enough ammunition to take on an army.

"Terrific, as much ammo as I can carry.. Now I just need a pulse rifle to go with it."

Encouraged, she opened the second container. It was holding support equipment. Two motion trackers, two shoulder lamps, two portable welding torches, a portable terminal, four communication headsets and a long range transmitter.

These could come in handy, but not what I need right now!

She opened the last crate and her heart sank in disappointment. It contained only medical kits, emergency rations, a box of marking flares, and a medical diagnostic unit that came with its own vaccine synthesizer and surgery equipment.

"Fuck!" Ripley muttered "No guns, here! Where else?"

She looked up and her eyes drifted back to her jacket, hanging on top of the locker from earlier. She took out one of the welding torches from the box and moves towards the locker…

Back at the abandoned vehicle, Harrigan had opened his eyes to the flashing morning light reflected by the windshield. He groggily stood up to his feet, still feeling the beating he took from the predator. He then heard a rumble that came from his stomach.

"Damn, I need to get to the camp for help or I'll be dying with my stomach empty"

He then armed himself with weapons he scavenged from the predator ship's wreckage, before finally leaving the abandoned vehicle for good as he walks his way to the Night Raid's camp site.