SENJO<br/><br/>B Gun was still armed. I left it active where it would guard the walkway to the School. I moved around the Hab block floor, being careful to avoid the softly sizzling patches of floor where the insides of these creatures had fallen.<br/><br/>I heard Lance Corporal Rome's analysis of our enemy and logged his comments. He was like this often and his mood had no effect on me. He did make one comment that was of interest.<br/><br/>I looked up at him.<br/><br/><strong>"We do not know that company scientists are doing research here. These life forms are not likely to be indigenous; LV-1875 was not reported to be supporting any native species and it's small mass, lack of atmosphere and lack of a food chain suitable to support such a large aggressive species indicates they are not native. It would be highly unlikely that Weyland-Yutani would knowingly establish a colony on a planetoid that was supporting a hive of such animals. Therefore..."</strong>my brain ran through two or three dozen possible scenarios,<strong>"We should consider one of three possibilities: first, that one or more of these creatures arrived with the colonists aboard a freighter. Second, that these creatures are like us - visitors here which implies they are capable of space travel <em>or they arrived on a ship belonging to a person or persons unknown...</em>"</strong>I added the emphasis to that,<strong>"Or Weyland-Yutani deliberately brought one or more here for experimentation~"</strong>I looked around the Hab block.<em>That unknown structure five clicks south west.</em>Beside my boot heel half of a melted teddy bear lay face up in a puddle of acidic sludge.<strong>"~with unfortunate consequences for the colonists."</strong><br/><br/>I had to perform two tasks of vital importance.<br/><br/><strong>"I need to access the colony's mainframe, the cabling here is out of commission, and I need to dissect one of these c~"</strong>I was interrupted by a slithering noise and a loud<em>thud</em>in the corner of the Hab block nearest where we had entered. In an instant I unshouldered my pulse rifle and trained it on the object that had fallen. It was the body of one of the small brown fast aliens. I looked up. It had fallen from the tier two walkway level. Up there a jagged hole was melted in the metal planking.<br/><br/>The dead alien was above and<em>behind</em>Alpha team's firing line.<strong>"Wait. Where did that come from? We have an insecure perimeter here."</strong>