She was out of options. She needed help, a concept that was once alien to her. But with her pride stripped away and guilt weighing her down, she no other choice. If not for her, then she would do it for the sake of her child. Silent and begrudging t...
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Justice knew she was being watched.
It wasn't a guess, nor was it merely just a feeling. The feeling of eyes tracking her movements felt so certain, so tangible it surpassed being just a hunch. It was an infallible sensation thrumming through every nano-receptor in her body. It was daytime again, and she was standing outside the common area's massive silver dome. Big enough to house a mess hall to feed every inhabitant of the planet at one time, the common area was equipped with three gyms, a pool, two rec rooms, and a movie theater, a project that had cost nearly two million credits to build and was now a desolate ghost town crawling with sentry level xenomorphs.
Last night, she had spent the night holed up in the extremely narrow access tunnel letting Larsa feed and sleep. Two things the child was not happy to do while still strapped in her harness, something Justice was sure Larsa vehemently hated by now by the way she wiggled with increased agitation. But by the blessing of the stars and the moon, the baby had hardly cried the past few nights. Could the baby sense the unsettling quietness that had settled over the small planet? Or did she Instinctively discern the lack of screams ripping through the air or how the siren that had rang constantly for two days straight had suddenly stopped as if it too sensed the hopelessness of LV594's situation. Or did she just look up to see her mother silently plead with her every second to please be continue being a good baby and stay quiet for momma?
After letting Larsa sleep through the night while Justice stayed awake, with her insides coiled tight and her finger gently resting ready on her rifle's trigger, they were now on the move again. Xenomorphs didn't really sleep, not when they were actively feeding and breeding like this. It was more of a dormant rest they allowed themselves during the daylight hours since hunting in the cover of darkness was preferred. But make no mistake, the aliens would kill during the day. Justice knew just as the sun rose and fell that the serpent aliens would chase her across LV594's desert in the bright afternoon light with little trouble and do everything in their power to mow her down. Meaning that fact did not help with the added knowledge that she was currently being silently stalked. Quietly, Justice skirted the dome building making her way to the giant square-shaped building about four hundred yards away, all the while constantly scanning her surroundings, trying to find the eyes that watched her.
Five days now, she had been awake for five days straight. Pausing, Justice crouched near a large scraggy bush near a covered corridor. Even in her borrowed mask, Justice narrowed her eyes at the gale of gusting wind tearing through the sandy terrain and pulled the makeshift shield tighter over Larsa's little body. When it all happened, Justice had been working her shift in the primigenius lab. Just as she always did, Justice had brought Larsa to work with her, letting the baby sit in her portable playpen while Justice documented and cared for the gigantic animals. With her extensive knowledge in predacious species behavior, working with docile mammoth primigenius was on the surface very out of the ordinary. Although, between the gentleness of the gigantic beasts and the quiet solitude of her job, the slow, peaceful life she established had helped her begin to heal. Justice had felt the improvements within her, she had felt her fractured confidence mend and the weight of her guilt become more bearable--but now all of that was gone. One person's fuck up had cost her and every one of this planet everything. Their costly error had reverted her back to exactly what she had been trying to distance herself from.
Thankfully, Larsa's baby bag had her harness in it, and with the calling feature on her gun, it had taken only a few minutes for her gun to come flying across the colony, nothing standing in the path of the rifle's anti-matter rounds until it landed securely in her grip. Within the first hour of the xenomorphs assault on LV594, three more of its kind spawned and matured, and it didn't take long for Justice to encounter one. Making sure to avoid hitting the carapace, she had set the rounds of her anti-matter rifle to vacuous warped shots. Each round of the sparkling black anti-matter hitting and obliterating the target while pulling in the acidic blood into its warp, preventing the dangerous spray-back. Cleaning out the shiny black carapace and shaping it, Justice attached it over the front of her harness, shielding Larsa. It was a foul and ugly looking piece of armor, but she had little choice. There was only one thing that repelled the xenomorph acid, and that was the glossy black hide of xenomorph skin. Protecting Larsa from any face-hugger or acidic spray-back was all that mattered.
Now, the only thing Justice needed was her goddamn suit.
Pausing outside of the foggy translucent dome of the corridor, Justice picked up the sounds of footsteps--human footsteps. Pushing herself back into the dry brush, she watched as two people ran hunkered down, their heads swiveling right and left as they skittered across the long corridor. Justice simply watched. They were headed towards the dorms as well. Did they seek the safety of their rooms, thinking they could hole up in there until help arrived? Or were they trying to get back to their rooms in hopes of reaching a comms unit so that they could hail for help? Justice watched as they disappeared from sight, her face impassive. Either way, they were dead, she surmised. Help was not coming.
A direct competitor of the Weyland-Yutani, the Undul corporation who owned and operated LV594, would not waste one penny sending out a rescue operation for this lost cause. Pulling up her holo-data interface in the palm of her hand, Justice pulled up a map of the dorms. The two survivors would probably try going up the service elevators on the right or the stairwell on the left, avoiding the main elevator in the middle. Looking up to the sky, Justice could see the rivulets of dark gray stretch across the sky as the sun began to recede. While there was still light out, she would use the outside access ladder. Tilting her head up, she scanned the side of the tall building. It may be twenty stories, but that sure as hell beat making her way to her dorm through the darkened halls. With her rifle set to the vacuous warp mode, it meant the shots were slower, meaning if she was swarmed suddenly with Larsa strapped to her chest and her without her suit--she would be fucked. Taking a deep breath, Justice partially stood, feeling the blood rush in her head and the fatigue of her body threaten the normal grace of her movements. She had never gone this long without sleep before. Even with the enhancements to her body, she was still human-deep down, she did require sleep occasionally. But that occasion wasn't now.
She had to get back to her dorm. Everything she needed was in there, sitting in a big black case waiting for her--calling to her. A case she had not turned to in months, a case she had purposely locked--like an idiot. Ignoring the hair raising tingle on the back of her neck as someone or something watched her, Justice pressed forward towards her only chance at survival.
