Metal shrieked as the first boarding pod punched through the auxiliary hangar's hull. Crimson warning lights flashed across the ceiling, casting long, bleeding shadows down the metallic corridor. Pressurized air hissed, venting violently into the cold vacuum of space before emergency bulkheads slammed shut with a deafening thud. Hicks raised his pulse rifle, his scarred face hardening under the harsh emergency glare. Beside him, Apone and Hudson checked their smartguns, their expressions grim but steady as they prepared for the worst. Standing eight feet tall, Amelia Voss watched the breached hull with absolute stillness. Her sleek, obsidian frame seemed to absorb the crimson light, making her look like a phantom carved from the void itself. Her pale human face remained perfectly calm, though her eyes had already shifted from their usual warm blue to a cold, abyssal metallic black. Rage burned beneath her synthetic-flesh skin. Weyland-Yutani never learned. They kept sending lambs to her slaughterhouse. "Hold your fire," Amelia commanded, her voice a deep, resonant purr that vibrated through the metal deck plates. Silent telepathic commands pulsed from her mind, flowing through the ship's ventilation shafts like an invisible wave. Three sleek Xenomorph drones dropped from the ceiling grates behind the newly breached boarding pod. Their elongated domes glinted in the dark, their claws scraping against the grated floor with a sound like tearing metal. Pressurized seals on the pod hissed open. Six heavily armored Weyland-Yutani commandos poured out, their assault rifles raised, searchlights cutting through the thick smoke. "Ambush!" one screamed, but the warning was cut short. Dropping from the ceiling, a drone lunged, its razor-sharp claws tearing through the commando's chest plate with sickening ease. Acidic blood hissed against the deck, eating through the metal. Amelia moved with predatory feline grace, blurring across the hangar floor before the remaining soldiers could even register her presence. Swift as a striking viper, she closed the distance. One soldier tried to swing his rifle toward her, but she caught the barrel with her bare hand, crushing the reinforced steel like a soda can. "Wrong move," she murmured, her lips peeling back to reveal extendable, jagged metallic fangs. Crushing the weapon was only the beginning. With a swift, downward strike, she drove her metallic fangs directly through his helmet's visor, shattering the glass followed by the wet crunch of bone. Hudson fired a short, controlled burst from his pulse rifle, dropping a commando who had managed to aim at Amelia's flank. "Got your back, boss!" "Appreciated, Hudson," Amelia said, casually tossing the dead soldier aside. Apone coordinated with the drones, directing them to seal the breach point while Hicks swept the remaining corridors. Within two minutes, the entire boarding party was neutralized. Red and yellow-green blood pooled across the hangar floor, smoking slightly as the ship's scrubbers hummed, trying to clear the metallic tang from the air. "Clear," Hicks grunted, lowering his rifle. He wiped a smear of sweat from his forehead, looking up at Amelia. "We need to get this bird into FTL before their heavy cruisers catch up." "Agreed," Amelia replied, her eyes slowly shifting back to their human blue. "Plot a course for the coordinates we ripped from Vance. We have a sister to find." --- Starlight smeared into long, glowing streaks of white as the ship leaped into hyperspace. The violent vibration of the sub-light engines smoothed out into a low, comforting rumble. Amelia sat in the quiet dark of the mess hall, her massive frame taking up two standard benches. She ran a wet cloth over her sleek, black forearm, wiping away the dried blood of the Weyland-Yutani strike team. Heavy bootsteps echoed in the corridor, breaking the silence. Hicks walked in, holding two steaming mugs of synthetic coffee. He set one down in front of her, then slid onto the bench opposite her. He looked tired, the deep lines on his face etched by years of survival and loss. "Thought you might want something warm," Hicks said, taking a slow sip from his mug. "Even if you don't strictly need it." "Thank you, Dwayne," Amelia said, her voice softer now, devoid of the metallic resonance she used to command the hive. She picked up the mug with two delicate, clawed fingers. "The ship is holding together?" "Apone and Hudson are patching the hangar breach," Hicks replied. "We'll be at the black site in six hours. It's a deep-space research station. Off the books, even for Weyland-Yutani." Silence settled between them, heavy and loaded with things unsaid. Amelia watched him, her bright blue eyes tracking the subtle tension in his jaw. "You have been quiet since we decrypted Vance's data," Amelia noted. "What is on your mind?" Hicks stared into his mug, watching the dark liquid swirl. "Seeing those coordinates... it brought back a lot of ghosts. Mostly Ellen." Amelia tilted her head. "Ellen Ripley. The woman who started all of this. You spoke of her before, but never about how she died." "Because it hurts like hell to talk about," Hicks muttered, his voice cracking slightly. He rubbed his face with a calloused hand. "She didn't make it off Fury 161, Amelia." He paused, taking a shaky breath. "We were in hypersleep after LV-426. Just me, her, and the kid, Newt. Something went wrong. An egg was on board. Our pod crashed on Fury." Amelia's grip on her mug tightened, the ceramic hairline-fracturing under her immense strength. "I was injured," Hicks continued. "Apone and Hudson... well, we thought they were gone back on the colony, but the company had already cloned them, kept them on ice. But Ellen... she survived the crash. She found out she had a Queen embryo inside her." "A warrior's death," Amelia said, her voice laced with deep, genuine respect. "She denied them their prize." "Yeah," Hicks grunted. "But the company doesn't stop. They didn't just try to clone her later on. They went after her bloodline." Amelia leaned forward. "Her daughter. Amanda." "Exactly," Hicks said, his expression turning fierce. "Amanda Ripley. She spent years looking for her mother. We found records in Vance's private files. She was put into hypersleep, just like Ellen. Decades passed." He slammed his fist on the table. "Weyland-Yutani found her pod. They lied to her, told her Ellen was still alive and waiting for her at this black site. They used her as leverage, kept her sedated, experimenting on her to see if her genetics held the same compatibility Ellen's did." "They used her grief against her," Amelia growled, her eyes flashing black for a fraction of a second. "They are monsters." "We're going to get her out," Hicks said, looking directly into Amelia's eyes. "No matter what." "We will," Amelia promised, her voice dropping to a dangerous, icy register. "And I will personally tear apart anyone who stands in our way." --- Cold mist hissed from the docking tube as their stolen ship docked with the dark, silent research station. The facility, designated Acheron-Secondary, clung to a jagged asteroid deep in the uncharted sector. Amelia stepped through the airlock first, her claws extended, her senses dialed to their absolute maximum. She could feel the faint, distant hum of the station's life support, but nothing else. No Xenomorph signatures. This was a purely synthetic and human facility. "Hudson, Apone, secure our retreat," Hicks whispered over the comms, his pulse rifle tucked tight against his shoulder. "Amelia and I are going in deep." "Copy that, Hicks," Hudson replied. "Don't take too long. This place gives me the creeps." Moving through the sterile, white corridors, Amelia felt a deep sense of disgust. The walls were lined with monitoring equipment, glass observation rooms containing horrific biological failures. Weyland-Yutani's obsession with perfection had only created suffering. "Down this way," Hicks directed, pointing down a heavily reinforced hallway. "The high-security stasis wing." Amelia swept ahead, her movements silent despite her massive size. Her metallic black eyes scanned the shadows, looking for automated turrets or motion sensors. With a flick of her wrist, she sliced through a security terminal's wiring, disabling the local grid before it could register their presence. They reached a heavy blast door labeled Subject: RIPLEY, A. "This is it," Hicks muttered, his hands trembling slightly as he approached the keypad. "They have it locked down tight." "Step back," Amelia said. She wedged her razor-sharp claws into the seam of the blast door. Muscles rippling beneath her obsidian skin, she pulled. Metal groaned and shrieked as she tore the heavy door completely off its tracks, tossing it aside with a loud clang. Inside the chamber, a single cryo-pod stood vertically, bathed in a pale green light. Inside the frosty glass was a woman with dark, curly hair, her face pale and frozen in a state of eternal waiting. "Amanda," Hicks breathed, rushing forward. He began punching commands into the pod's manual override panel. "I'm purging the cryo-fluid." Warm air hissed as the pod began to drain. The glass fogged, then cleared as the seal broke. Amanda Ripley gasped, her eyes snapping open. She stumbled forward, her limbs weak from decades of stasis. Hicks caught her, holding her steady. "I've got you. You're safe." "Who... who are you?" Amanda whispered, her voice hoarse, her eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to focus. "Where is my mother? They said she was here..." "They lied to you, Amanda," Hicks said gently, his heart breaking. "I'm Hicks. I knew your mother. We're here to rescue you." Amanda's eyes drifted past his shoulder, landing on the towering, terrifying figure of Amelia. She gasped, trying to recoil in terror. "What is that?!" "I am Amelia," she said, stepping forward with a gentle, reassuring smile on her pale human face. "I am your friend, Amanda. And I promise you, no one will ever hurt you again." Suddenly, the green lights in the chamber snapped to a harsh, blinding crimson. Overhead, a synthesized voice boomed through the speakers. "Warning. Unauthorized access detected. Containment protocol Delta-Nine initiated." Heavy steel shutters slammed down over the exit, sealing them inside the stasis chamber. Hicks spun around, raising his rifle. "Amelia, we've got a problem!" "Look at the monitors," Amanda gasped, pointing a shaking hand at the security screens on the wall. Amelia's metallic black eyes narrowed as she stared at the glowing displays. Dozens of heavy security pods in the lower levels were opening, releasing towering, synthetic-human hybrid combat units equipped with heavy weaponry. "They knew we were coming," Amelia whispered, her fangs extending as she prepared for a fight. "It was a trap." From the vents above, a thick, sweet-smelling gas began to pour into the sealed room. "Hold your breath!" Hicks yelled, coughing as the gas hit his lungs. Amelia stepped in front of them, her massive body shielding Amanda and Hicks from the vents, but she knew they only had seconds before the toxic fumes overpowered her human allies. "Amelia..." Hicks gasped, falling to one knee as the gas rapidly stripped the oxygen from the air. She looked up at the ceiling, her claws flexing, preparing to rip their way out, but then she heard the sound of heavy, synchronized metal footsteps marching right toward their door. A voice crackled over the intercom, cold and mocking. "Welcome to your graveyard, Empress."

Chapter 20: Ghosts of the Bloodline