Shadows (an Alien fan novel)

Prologue: Falling.

Darkness, pure and black; the dashboard on the large 5 deck ship flashing lights of red, yellow and green. In the hypersleep pod behind the console laid a body. A man, young with long black hair; a stripped bardcode tattoo lit up by the flashing lights as the cabin flashes bright red and emergency alarms sound.

"Warning, collision imminent, warning, collision imminent."

The semitonal voice of Mother, the shuttles supercomputer blaring in his ear as he droned to life in the pod.

"Warning, collision imminent, prepare for impact, emergency Weyland Yutani distress signal activated. Warning"

The voice repeated several times before he jerked awake, pushing the top of the pod open and slumped out. His semi nude body covered in ice and sweat as he heaved violently and vomitted.

"Mother, status report!" He yelled as the ship jerked violently up and down as it entered an atmosphere.

"Collision imminent, engines damaged, breaches on decks 2, 3, 4. Unidentified life forms detected, prepare for impact in..2 minutes, 45 seconds. Distress beacon to United States Colonial Marines and Weyland Yutani active"

The man jerked his way into the center seat of his 5 man crew ship, pressing various buttons and switches he yelled into the speaker next to his head rest.

"Mother, identify impact planet!" He grabbed the hand rests of his chair as the ship shook violently again and steam bellowed behind him.

"Planet is GB-765, outside Zeta II Reticuli. Colonized; 2,600 currently active colonists. Warning 1 minute 12 seconds to impact."

Then everything went black, the ship crashed at such a high rate of speed that it tore itself in half as it collided with the side of a ridge. Spilling metal and containers behind it, the young man lurched forward as his ship crashed. His head hitting the console with a wet slap, he laid there for several minutes before opening his eyes, vision blurry and his head throbbed. Light poured in from a large crack in the front window of his bridge

The alarms stopped and he moved to stand up but heard a loud skittering behind him. He stayed perfectly still, playing dead as several yellow crab-like spider crawling up the wall and out the window.

"Shit, they're loose. I..have to get to the colony." He groaned standing up as he moved as quietly as possible to the rear of the bridge. Pulling a large green rifle out of the cabinet and several magazines, after loading the rifle; the digital display on the side reead '99' grabbing several red tipped grenades and a short wave radio and thin wristband he climbed out the same window.

The yellow-red tint of the sunrise glaring up to meet his already dazed vision. Pressing a button on he pulled up Daughter, a creation of his own. A few seconds later a small hologram appeared over his wrist.

"Daughter, whats the current direction and distance to the colony?"

The small girl with long hair beamed up and displayed a number. "The colony is currently 12 kilometers North by Northwest...Caution Unidentified life forms near."

He nodded, readying his rifle as he started walking.