The marines in the mess hall simultaneously jumped into action, the deafening siren alerting them to an intruder entering the base. Rei Soto scoured the room for her commander. The teams would assemble into three squads and comb the entire compound until they found whatever or whomever Rei though, had set off the alarm.

Pulse rifle in hand she joined with her seven man team. Dutch, the sergeant in charge, silently signed orders to them, reminding them to check all corners and the ceiling. This was not the first time something had triggered the alarm. Only weeks ago the same thing happened. Some kind of slimy black creature relentlessly made its way through the base leaving a trail of bodies in it's path. Dozens of men and women died. They are unsure of what it was that attacked them. For certain it was alien, but there was no record from any other system or database they checked. When they shot at it blood spurted out and melted through armor and flesh. It took days to finally kill it. Scientists tried to perform a necropsy on the body, but the acidic blood disintegrated any and all instruments they used. Rei silently prayed that this wouldn't be another one of those creatures.

The compact metal corridors echoed their footsteps. Rei hated them. The hollow metal pipes and grates that served as a walkway made it damn near impossible to employ stealth in their search; anything that was out there, human or not, was sure to hear them coming. She would never admit it to any of the guys on her team, but it made her nervous.

They turned a corner and halted. The hall had collapsed in on itself, leaving only a narrow space at the top to squeeze through. "Soto go ahead and see if you find anything. The rest of us are going to have to take the long way around" She heard the sergeant's voice whisper through her head piece.

"Copy that" She replied as silent as she could, hoping her fear wasn't apparent. When the rest of the team stopped Rei tiptoed as quietly as she could climbing over the baracade, and going ahead. Being the smallest person in the entire compound, excluding children, her small frame was perfect for crouching in small corners and blending into dark crevasses that her much larger teammates could never do.

If you didn't know where you were going it would seem like a maze. Weyland-Yutani must hate the people they employ. Nothing about the architectural design was practical. The walkways were elevated, walls covered in piping and wires that ran to who knows where. The main purpose of the compound was to try and make the planet that it resided on habitable for humans. Earth was all but depleted, and the Weyland-Yutani corp. was determined to spread humanity out to as many planets as it possibly could. No matter what the cost. Personally Rei thought that they had their heads way to far up their own asses to really care about what they were doing. On their planet LV-629 they were receiving reports more frequently about how other settlements on other planets were encountering different species. Some of them reported friendly, most reported hostile.

Passing by the medical bay Rei noticed something out of place. "Serge it looks like someone sacked med-bay." She called in.

"What do you see Soto?"

Entering through a shattered window, "Windows are out. They were smashed from the inside by something trying to get out." Walking further taking great pains not to make any noise on the strewn instruments or broken glass Rei took in her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the over powering smell of blood. In this section there weren't many medical officers, but she found all seven of them in a pile in a corner of the research lab.

"Sir the med crew is dead. Most look like cause of death was a stab would to the abdomen probably piercing the heart or lungs."

"Copy Soto. Keep looking. ETA five minutes."

Continuing her search she moved away from the pile walking towards the back room that doubled as storage and a morgue. The filing cabinets were all ripped open and papers were scattered. Glass jars that contained different body parts from a multitude of specimen were broken, the liquid contense inside now covering the floor, mixing with the blood of the dead science officers. Once inside the morgue she noticed there were five bodies on gurneys, the sheets were torn back on each one. Upon further inspection she saw that all five looked like something pushed its way out of their abdomens, ribcages and splintered and bent unnaturally outwards. The wound was so large that she could see the spine of the person she was examining. What the hell happened to them? She thought to herself.

Each table had a shiny trail of fresh blood leading from each one that stretched towards a small air vent on the back wall. She charged up her rifle and crouched, pausing after each step to watch for any sign of movement.

Reaching out towards the vent she was jerked back violently. Pulling the trigger as she went sliding across the floor it missed her target and singed the wall behind it. She only got a momentary glimpse of what she was dealing with before it vanished. A flash of what looked like dark brownish black scales and something purple. Looking around the room she couldn't see it anymore. There was no sign to where it went. There was no way it could have run away that fast. Now that she thought about it the thing was standing still when it disappeared. Searching for an explanation she recalled a conversation she had a few days ago with an engineer who said he was working on an upgrade the cloaking mechanism for all the transport ships. Does it have some sort of cloaking device? That's impossible! The companies' ships only have a very primitive version of this. How does this… thing have it?

"Serge I've made contact! I can't tell what it is, but whatever it is it can camouflage itself be careful!"

"Soto can you follow it?" The sergeant yelled in response.

"No I can't see it anymore but I don't think it's left med-bay. Also there are five bodies that looks like they were harboring something inside them. Blood trails lead to an air vent and disappear inside. I went to check it out but whatever was in here with me pulled me away from it. I tried firing but it vanished before I could get a lock."

"Is it hostile?"

"It doesn't appear to be no." Rei was startled by a sudden clanging. She whipped around to see the thing had been pinned down by a piece of machinery that had fallen over, catching it's foot. It still had the cloak activated but now that it was stationary again she could see the faint outline of the body. Rei couldn't make out any features.

She started walking closer. It was struggling a little and Rei thought thatit must have hit it's head when it fell.

"Hello?" She whispered.

Suddenly it turned around; the cloak fell as it drew its weapon at her. Still on the ground, twisted around facing Rei she could see what it looked like. A long slightly curved sword point at her. She trained her rifle on what appeared to be a female. She was wearing dark smooth armor, which covered her chest and shoulders. What looked like roughened black leather pants rode low on her hips fastened by metal clips, and a straps holding a different array of weaponry around each thigh. The pants stretched down into thick metal toed boots adorned with two small spikes on each toe. Her skin had what she could only describe as an outline of scaling. The dark brown and black spots only speckles down the sides of her neck, down to the outsides of her arms and sides of her abdomen, and disappeared down her hips into her pants. The rest looked like normal human skin. The metal mask covering her face was expressionless, purple hair pulled back into a ponytail.

"What the hell are you?" Rei questioned. The girl started to lower her sword and rei heard a shot ring out.

Looking up Dutch was standing in the entrance to the medical bay, pulse rifle raised up. "You ok?" He asked Rei.

"Yes sir."

"What do you think it is?" He asked gesturing to the now limp body on the ground.

"I'm not sure sir. Did you kill her?"

"No. I only stunned her for a bit. What the hell is it?"

Rei shrugged, "I'm not sure. Doesn't look like anything that has been reported. Her weapons are basic cutting devices which imply primitive, yet the possible cloaking technology would suggest far more advanced.

"We need to get her back to base for questioning." Dutch turned and motioned to two other marines. They looked as though they were asked to carry something toxic. After receiving a harsh expletive from the Sergeant cautiously they walked over and picked up the girl.

The group walked out of the medical bay and back towards operations where they would put the girl into a holding cell. Maybe Rei thought I can ask her what it was that came out of those dead people. Maybe she knows and that's why she got me away from the air vent. She must know. Is she after whatever it is? So many questions crossed her mind as she walked with her team. She stared at the lifeless body being carried ahead of her. She knew how her sergeant could get during an interrogation. He was ruthless, just like in battle, he would never let up until he got the answers he was looking for. Rei hoped he wouldn't get to pushy, even though that was a very light term for what he would do, because technically that girl, whoever she was, might have saved her from whatever was in those vents.