Aliens: Labyrinth

The human space-exploration crew of the USS Covenant land on uncharted planet LG-426 in the year 2900 and realize they must use their wits and self-control to deal with 'Xenomorph' alien destiny!

Sorry folks, I couldn't resist offering up one more fun sci-fi horror-tale about humans engaging with various Xenomorph alien creatures on an uncharted planet in the distant future. This intuition-based omen-story was inspired by the Alien franchise and presents the various 'castes' of Xenomorph aliens and is also inspired by the Aliens: Labyrinth comics series. I hope you like it!

Thanks for reading (signing off),

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"The USS Covenant was the new spacecraft sent to explore the uncharted planet LG-426 in the Rai Galaxy, far from the Milky Way, in the year 2900. The human male captain of the Covenant crew, David Orem commanded 10 individuals in all, 3 soldiers, 2 engineers, 2 scientists, 1 co-captain (Daniels), and 1 doctor. Daniels was a woman who'd worked up the ranks of the American army and become a co-captaining worthy US flight officer and was therefore second-in-command to Orem who was highly-respected as resourceful and intelligent. Orem and Daniels became good friends and conversed about their mission to LG-426 which was possibly inhabited by an unknown intelligent but malicious alien creature known as a Xenomorph. The crew of the Covenant was to determine if the Xenomorphs were hostile towards humans on planet LG-426."

"OREM: Very respectable, a big fan of Halloween costumes and masks, and a friend of eco-activism on Earth and elsewhere in the post-Apocalypse expanded universe. Orem enjoys video-games, music, Italian food, and the writings of Frantz Fanon from the 20th Century (Earth). Orem became captain at a young age and is considered both handsome and self-organized but with a wry but perceptive sense of humor."

"DANIELS: Ingenious, clever, pretty, strong, and imaginative. Katherine Daniels graduated from the Ivy League before training with the NSA to become a super-soldier for the American army. She signed onto Weyland Corporation's space-exploration mission training program and worked her way up the ranks to earn the right to co-captain a Weyland mission. She's a fan of Captain David Orem and shares his interests in Italian food and music. However, she's somewhat different from Orem in that she doesn't like strict adherence to army policy in crisis-scenarios requiring flexibility!"

"David Orem, captain of the USS Covenant, set his Seiko digital wrist-watch, a classic vintage 'trophy' from the 20th Century (Earth) to 11:45, since the time-lapse during the transit between the Milky Way Galaxy and Rai Galaxy would create a 10-hour difference, and he wanted to have the correct time on planet LG-426 to feel just more grounded in the environment in which he was now placed. That was Orem --- predictable and simultaneously resourceful. Orem secretly wondered what kinds of obstacles his crew would face as they searched for the Xenomorph aliens on the uncharted planet and was happy he had a nice watch to keep the time!"

"Orem and Daniels briefed the rest of the crew and explained the dangers and responsibilities for this valuable exploration and possible contact mission with the Xenomorph aliens. The crew were told they'd be equipped with fancy Weyland laser hand-guns in case the aliens they contacted on planet LG-426 were unfriendly! The crew was ready for what they needed to face."

"When the Covenant landed on the uncharted planet, they noticed a body of water between rocky hills, and the water was a lake. They decided to submerge into the lake to see how deep it was and if there was anything underneath the surface of the lake."

"To their surprise, the exploration crew found a large underwater labyrinth-like fortress underwater when they submerged in the lake as a group! The fortress was multi-leveled and contained a large labyrinth entrance which had to be traversed to get to the inner-rooms or chambers of the fortress. The crew decided to enter the labyrinth of this underwater fortress which was most likely built by the Xenomorph aliens."

"The crew of the Covenant slowly and carefully made their way into the labyrinth of the fortress entrance. They knew that at any given moment, they might encounter a terrifying Xenomorph alien creature who might exhibit signs of both intelligence and undesirable unfriendliness! Orem and Daniels told everyone to remain prepared for the worst!"

"Just as they made their way into about 1/6 of the labyrinth distance to the fortress' inner-areas, they saw a very quick-footed Xenomorph alien creature run or streak by them. The alien creature was larger than a normal human man and resembled a cross between an insect and a dragon and seemed to have claws. Orem noticed the creature spit saliva as it ran by and when it did, the saliva was a hot corrosive acid of some kind. Orem and Daniels told their crew they'd need to constantly evaluate what these Xenomorphs wanted, since they were obviously conscious of their ability and speed, sufficient to 'cage' or 'confound' humans."

"Fortunately, the exploration crew of the Covenant was armed with their handy-dandy laser-guns. Everyone, including co-captain Daniels cocked their weapons and held them in the ready-position in case another less neutral Xenomorph alien ran by them while they tried to make their way through the labyrinth of the underwater fortress of planet LG-426."

"Finally, the crew encountered another Xenomorph alien. This Xenomorph had a sign on its shoulder which read 'DRONE' which implied it was a scouting and security type alien sent to simply record what the humans of the Covenant crew were doing in the labyrinth. The DRONE was very focused, so Orem and Daniels told the crew to crouch and remain humbled and just pretend to be avoiding it as it continued to just simply walk away after noticing what the crew of the Covenant was doing in the labyrinth!"

"Next, about 10 minutes later, the Covenant crew came across another Xenomorph alien, and this one had the sign-word 'WARRIOR' engraved on its shoulder! This implied that this 'caste' or type of Xenomorph alien was sent simply to defend or attack in case the human explorers were thought of as hostile or overly-curious! The WARRIOR alien wanted to lunge at the humans and see if they were scared of its claws, so Orem and Daniels fired their laser-guns above its head in the underwater fortress labyrinth, which, by the way, was completely enclosed in a water-tight glass bubble. The WARRIOR alien wanted to see if it could simply frighten away the Covenant crew (but Daniels and Orem held their solid ground!)."

"Finally, there was the third 'caste' of Xenomorph alien the Covenant crew encountered in that underwater but oxygen-rich fortress labyrinth on planet LG-426. This Xenomorph had the sign-word 'PRAETORIAN' engraved on its shoulder, which implied it was pseudo-political or deference-conscious to some higher-command, perhaps given by an alien 'queen' or 'president' of some kind! The PRAETORIAN alien streaked by the Covenant crew in the labyrinth to see if the human explorers were organized enough and intelligent enough to be categorized as a contact-worthy rather than a destruction-deserving species!"

"As Captain Orem and Co-Captain Daniels and the exploration crew of the USS Covenant continued to make their way into the labyrinth-maze of the underwater Xenomorph alien fortress on planet LG-426, they suddenly discovered they were going to be attacked as prey by the alien creatures! They decided in unison to disband and run separately, using their handy-dandy laser-guns as lone individuals trying to target and shoot the preying alien Xenomorphs who tried to simultaneously surround and pounce on them. Each 'caste' of the aliens, the DRONE, WARRIOR, and PRAETORIAN, had the intention to scare the human crew of the Covenant and kill them, so each crew-member, including Daniels and Orem, decided to treat every alien attacking as a single target requiring absolute focus and aim."

"Daniels and Orem managed to get past the Xenomorphs stalking them individually and made their way into the first inner-room of the underwater alien fortress on planet LG-426. They discovered a giant room of Xenomorph eggs, ready to hatch and give birth/rise to more Xenomorphs, but they concluded this planet or 'station' was a cultivation center, like a 'bee-hive' and should not be disturbed. They decided to just take photos of the egg-room."

"Daniels and Orem took the survivors of the human exploration crew of the Covenant and reboarded their Covenant spacecraft. There were three casualties, human explorers simply killed by the Xenomorphs in the labyrinth who exhibited absolutely no pity for their lack of focus and resourcefulness to escape. When the Covenant took off, Orem radioed the Weyland Corporation and informed them of the conclusions and reports made by himself and co-captain Daniels. When the Covenant reached Earth, they were awarded gold Xenomorph 'trophies' for their excellent courage."

"Daniels became a part-time amateur artist and made countless renderings of what she considered to be the most symbolic aspects of humans making contact with Xenomorph aliens! In her drawings, she considered how engaging with these intelligent but simultaneously defensive and malicious intelligent creatures required great human intuition. Each 'caste' of Xenomorph demanded absolute human focus on principle and self-awareness. You simply had to be humble, defiant, and imaginative. Daniels' creative artistic depictions of humans seeing Xenomorphs represented her experience feeling like a 'doll' in the presence of these dragon-like beings."

"When Orem and Daniels were recruited for another Weyland mission, they politely declined, suggesting that their past mission on LG-426 was sufficient to satisfy any human fascination with Xenomorph adventure Weyland might have prescribed for them! They simply concluded their successful survival on planet LG-426 was all they needed to understand and appreciate why new age species contact was a thing of marvelous design."

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"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth" (Matthew 5)