Zara was pleased by Jonah's fate. Kal took pleasure in it because of that. The weakness of the man had been of use when he was human, but it seemed to mutate strangely in the beast that shed his shell. Quietly, Kal's eye were lit up by the flashes from the weapons as they chased the monster to hide in the walls of the ship. Max had been an amicable creature, at least to himself and Zara. Jonah would be something else. Sometimes, weak beings are the most dangerous. He decided they would share that enemy with the human soldiers, at least for as long as the group was alive. This persecution would have to be Jonah's punishment for any inconvenience and outright suffering he'd caused Zara. She wanted him to suffer more. Kal nodded as he looked at the vent door on the floor. "We'll get more chances for that." he assured her. "The genetics of that spawn is inspired by Jonah himself. I think there'll still be enough of the man in the spawn to make its agony worth while, and not just sentimental for us." He said to comfort her. Usually, spawns would be their allies, but if Zara held animosity toward it, it might not be a good fit.<br/><br/>Jonah was livid with anger and caution after the sight of the erected monster. Kal could taste the worry in the man's exuded molecules and was ready to protect Zara if the need should arise. It was just a courtesy, it seemed, when these soldiers raised their weapons, but Kal knew what happened when it was not. The scars on his face drew taut. He looked at Zara while Nathan checked on the woman who was in the throes of her transformation. It seemed to be a less volatile reaction in Josephine, which was interesting to Kal. Nathan did not find it so intriguing and his levels of anxiety were spiking. That was what prompted Kal to make the decision for him, and let him have the treasure of Zara's blood. Her compliments seemed lost on Nathan when he was suffering on the floor, without his precious gun and no useable strength. Kal thought it was a beautiful change, that this man had been their leader before, and was now reduced to this. "Everyone is strong enough to be transformed. We'll see if he'll be anything like us." he said to Zara when she wondered about what Nathan might become.<br/><br/>Kal listened to Zara recant what had transpired while he was dead. There were many junctures during which she could have died without him. That thought sparked anger and sadness in Kal. He sighed with some relief as the man on the floor continued to twist and stretch in the discomfort of being completely altered. The others seemed not to know what to do. The two creatures not human were a threat to them, but their leader was down. They weren't fighting for any admirable cause here. They were still mercenaries without honor. Their lives mattered more than bringing samples back to an old man and his greed for knowledge.<br/><br/>Nathan felt his bones break and reform. It was a profound kind of violation that seemed to be initiated and upheld by his own body. He stared at the ceiling for comfort, and employed some of the breathing that Zara had used during her time with Jonah and Josephine torturing her. In his tosses of suffering, he looked to the side where Josephine had stilled, unconscious, even if her shape itself seemed to still be moving. He could only assume it was because of something inside her, similar to the thing that used to be Jonah. He gritted his teeth when he looked up at Zara and her speech. He understood the mentality of enemies. He supposed her disposition was more justified, protecting her progeny. It didn't make it less bitter. Perhaps it was worse that she thought she was a moral creature in all this. It didn't matter, most of his thoughts were seared by stupefying pain, anyway. Fight she said. He fucking would.<br/><br/>Kal looked at the rowed up victims with their beloved rifles aimed at him when Zara suggested he take a bit of vengeance. There were shivers up his spine when she touched him. How menacing it must be, when he stepped forward, dispatched by the woman they'd wronged, and his skull again was clad by the protection, shooting up from seemingly nowhere. Their bullets littered the air and then his chest, breaking scales that were quickly changed for others. As long as the material was enough to slow down the projectiles, his muscles and flesh could reform quickly, and gather the metal caps inside him where it couldn't do any damage. He took his time walking over, until they had to reload. The first one was an easy kill, just a matter of punishing him through his armor and ruining his heart from the trauma. The others tried to survive, and they failed just as  gloriously as the first.<br/><br/>He was fueled by the scent of Carl's blood and continued to batter the troops until they forced him to start tearing them apart. Their blood became the atmosphere in this room, their destroyer stomping on and bringing them back with his long limbs when they tried to flee. This should have been a payday, but instead it became their last. He treated himself to some tough sinew, the helmet unclasping from his jaw while still protecting his eyes. He'd been made into a slaughterer and eating machine by them, it was only right that they should get to experience his efficiency. The last soldier was held up by his throat, and a small tap from Kel's longest finger broke a vertebrae. The body was intact when he tore into it with his teeth.<br/><br/>He was soon joined by Zara, who was ravenous from carrying their child. The pair continued their feast together. While it was full of noises, they didn't speak, taking in the nutrients and delicious texture of people who had been living not a minute ago. The steaming parts were hot to his tongue, and he sighed with satisfaction as they helped rebuilt what they'd shot up. He smiled into the gore eventually, having had his massive fill alongside her. This was their first dinner together. How sentimental. They'd decorated the bay to their liking. It wasn't like Dr. Carl would need it ever again.<br/><br/>His arms invited her, his helmet snapping back to plates around his neck when she approached. Her approval of him was worth any of these vermin's life. He embraced her and felt the child kick with excitement and all the sustenance she'd provided him with. She had a new mission for them. His tongue came out to start cleaning her mouth and cheeks from the remnants of people. "We'll keep him safe. We'll keep him with us." he promised and then nodded at her other demand. "We must eat. It might as well be the people who persecute us." Weyland was ambitious, afflicted with hubris. That kind of creature was a fine target for anyone.<br/><br/>The carnage had beckoned Jonah back. It came through the open doors and crawled along the floor to lick at the blood puddles and then chew at the parts that were less fatty, and still dressed in armor. Almost like a dog with a bone. Kal didn't care much about it. It's animosity wouldn't be stirred if they didn't attack it, if it was a normal spawn.<br/><br/>Suddenly Nathan gargled, forgotten. And he got up on his knees. "You're monsters." he said through his teeth, bloody from having bitten the inside of his cheeks and his tongue in agony. His eyes were speckled with silver. Kal looked at the soldier and felt his own mouth fill up. Kal coughed a few times and approached the crawling commander, holding Zara by her hand. Kal stared at Nathan while his bowed and kissed Zara deeply, tasting shreds of human from her tongue. It was interesting to the giant, how Nathan seemed to be taking to the transformation. "I'll never be like you." the last man continued.<br/><br/>Nathan crawled over to Josephine to see how she was, and perhaps learn about his own change. She was lifeless. He cussed and put his head to her chest. The room was quiet. Even Kel was curious. And then there was the sickening sound of her ribs exploding, the bone curves reaching out to lock Nathan's head into her chest cavity. He tried to scream but it was muffled inside her as she stared closing up around him. He wanted to yank free, but ended up just lifting and slamming her back against the floor. Kal held Zara's hand and stepped back to give the two room.<br/><br/>"They're merging. Nathan was too weak to be anything like us, even if your blood is strong, and she was also not taking well to her change. Their blood is mixing to make a better lifeform." he said into Zara's ear as though it was a sweet little nothing. His hand let go of hers to roam her body, visiting the round of her belly and the soft of her breasts. "I missed you in death." he confessed while Nathan was screaming, the sound muffled inside the unresponsive Josephine. His boots were kicking but nothing could pry her off him. The bloodied fingers of the giant eventually had painted Zara in illustrious crimson streaks, and his fingers, armored on the backhand side, found their way between her legs, like watching Nathan die and become something else was some kind of visual aphrodisiac.<br/><br/>A few wet pops could be heard, and if she looked at Kal then, she would be able to see the scales reseed between his muscles, leaving him nude like before, as soon as those armor-holding gills closed. His cock was intact, flopping free from the protection. Kel turned her face to look at him as a naked finger slid into the place where his cock had been before. Nathan arched one last time before falling still, the only thing moving the two were the twitches and coils of whatever was happening inside the dead Josephine.<br/><br/>"They're volatile." he explained as he sat down and pulled her along. He let her face them in his lap, his kisses on the back of her neck to let her back rest against his torso as he dressed his cock with her pussy again, while they both saw the melding of the two humans, and how the meaty mass rejected their clothes and plates. "We could do this to an entire planet. We could expand on our own branch of biology. We could make a kingdom for our son."