The marines guarding the gate snapped to attention as the black government sedan, its inhabitants checked and cleared by the post's commanding officer, accelerated and crossed into the fenced off experimentation facility of Transformtech's Defence division. 

The main facility lay between two hills, blocking curious stares. Now the car was climbing up the slope covering the last couple of miles to it, and soon it came into view. The test site was a non-descript cluster of warehouses and administration buildings, but the car's inhabitants knew that there were in fact wide caverns hidden beneath the bottom. The facility had been a production ground for biological weapons once, and while what was being testet here now wasn't considered a WMD under international law, it definitely deserved the label "B-weapon". Therefore having those new technologies tested here had some underlying irony, only few people could appreciate. 

Brigadier General Mark Hawthorne, USMC, Vice Chief of Naval Research and Commander, Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, was one of those few. Now, he was waiting for his ride to await at the main building where most of the leading scientists would await him. 

Although he visited this facility quite often, today he was a little apprehensive. Because today, the scientists would brief him about success (or failure) of a top secret quarter billion dollar research they'd carried out over the past couple of years. Since it was a 'black' project, no politican would be able to demand the head of the one responsible for all this money going down the drain in case worst came to worst. On the other hand, investing so much of the tax-payer's money without getting something in return would leave a stale taste in the Brigadier's mouth, not to mention the fact that such a desaster would effectively cripple his carrier. 

Stop that, Mark! he chastised himself. Such fuck-ups happen rarely and only if either politicians or morons are in charge of such projects. And you're neither a politician nor a moron. Although one could argue that 'moron' is only another word for 'politician'... 

His lips crimped in an ironic smile, and then the car stopped. Mark gathered his head and exited the car which had been parked by the chauffeur right in front of a group of beaming scientists. 

"Look, General, they are beaming. Can't be that bad a failure then." a pleasant contralto behind him said and Hawthorne turned and looked at his aide-de-camp, First Lieutenant Sandra Mitchelli, who exited the car behind him, straightening out her uniform's skirt now. 

The Lieutenant was a very (very as in bold, VERY) attractive woman, still short of her thirties, with shoulder-length blond hair held in place by an unobtrusive clasp. She exercised regularly and therefore sported the kind of perfect, trim, fit hourglass figure most of the world's female population was dreaming of and most of the world's male population was dreaming of as well, albeit for different reasons. 

But Hawthorne hadn't selected her for her good looks, in fact he hadn't even sawn an image of her when he'd selected her to be his new aide-de-camp. The deciding factor had rather been her academy scores and distinguished service record, including one combat tour. He'd felt a little guilty when he'd grabbed her for staff duty, because this had probably delayed her promotion to O-3 for another year or so, but she was a perfect aide and the experience would undoubtedly help her further down her carrier. 

Plus, he VERY silently admitted only to himself from time to time, she really is a pleasure to look upon. Especially in the Marine Corps' female officer's dress uniform she was dressed in now, with her uniform frock emphasizing every curve, same as her skirt and the smokey pantyhose she was wearing below. The modest heels at her feet further accentuated her fantastic legs.

And so far they enjoyed a good working relationship, another asset to considered. So Hawthorne now only raised his eybrows in silent question instead of rebuking his subordinate for her frankness. 

"That easy to notice, is it?" he asked and Sandra shook her head. 

"Don't worry, Sir. I'm sure nobody will realize that you're a little anxious. I only noticed it because you were crackling with your fingers in the car, something you only do when you're nervous."

"That I shall remember and never do this mistake he again." he mused. "But now I have to kill you because you've discovered my secret!"

"I don't think so, Sir." she replied grinning. "Where'll you get your coffee then?" 

"Damn, you're right." the General laughed. "It looks like you've made yourself indispensable, so count yourself lucky." 

"One tries, General." she replied. "One tries." 

Suddenly he realized that the short joke had actually raised his spirits, and so he wasn't quite as antsy as before, as he went to greet the scientists, Sandra's calming presence silently hovering at his back.

"I'm Dr. Mendez." the middle-aged, baldy man at the front of the small group introduced himself and General Hawthorne shook his hand. 

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Mendez." he said. "I've read much about your research. I'm very interested in finding out what you've accomplished here in project Krypton. 

The doctor beamed. "Splendid." he said. "If you'll please follow me to the conference room, we've prepared a small presentation, followed by a live demonstration. 

"The gear is already operational?" the General asked startled. To be fair, for today he'd only anticipated a statement  of whether the project's intended goal was attainable or not. To have actually reached that goal already was... something else. 

"Yes, it's quite astonishing, in fact." Dr. Mendez explained. "But once we had the original design finished, we realized that, to make it work, we could use existing gear. All we had to do was to reprogram a few software modules. This took nearly half a year off our timetable. 

Now the General was possible gaping. Only sowly he managed to recover himself. "Doctor, if you truly managed what you're telling me, then this will have enormous consequences for your company." he said truthfully. "Positive consequences. So far we have enough contractors who need twice the time and thrice the money to devise a system. Having one at hand who actually manages to finish before the deadline would be a very pleasant change for once." 

Dr. Mendez and his team were beaming like a nuclear weapon going hot now, probably already imagining all the kinds of consequences this would place upon themselves and, obviously, their salaries. Well, that was fine for General Hawthorne. If they'd really accomplished what they were claiming, they deserved it. 

Most of the scientists excused themselves once they were inside the building and went to their laboratories or offices, only Dr. Mendez and two of his department managers stayed with them. Which was fine for the General as well. The less science-nerds present the better. Getting a decent, for laymen understandable explanation for something out of a scientist was a task which put the conquest of the K2 without oxygen to shame. Although, in the General's opinion, engineers normally tended to be even worse. Scientists actually wanted to explain things in a way that any layman could understand them, their problem was that they regularly failed in doing so. Engineers, on the other hand, didn't even try. 

Hawthorne was still musing about the manyfold faults of engineers when the little group reached a large conference room. He and the Lieutenant took seat in the first row while Dr. Mendez started up the beamer and connected a laptop to the presentation desk. His subordinates stored themselves away unobtrusively in one corner of the room, but not without closing every shutter before. 

Good security. Hawthorne thought appreciatingly. There was virtually no chance that an intruder would've penetrated the test area's perimeter security, but better to make sure than to risk some freak occurence. 

Then Dr. Mendez started his power point presentation and the beamer obediently projected his first slide, covered with the project's goal.

"General, Ma'am," he started. "You both know what this program is about, but let me summarize again: Development of small, shoulder-fired SAMs with homing capability even against high flying, stealthed targets has made it very difficult for the Air Force to effectively use drones for reconnaissance. A decade ago, during the final stages of the War on Terror, drones had been used immersively, providing reconnaissance and frontline fire support equally. This, unfortunately, has changed. Since the development of the before-mentioned SAMs, even our stealthiest drones are falling victim to MANPADs, denying us the reconnaissance capability we'd enjoyed for the two decades before. We can still use high-altitude drones, but their images are nowhere as detailed as the ones of their low-flying cousins and they're also unable of providing fire support and distributing surgical air strikes." 

He coughed slightly and took a sip of water. 

"Therefore it had become necessary to send in human reconnaissance elements again. One entity to provide this human reconnaissance are the United States Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance, an elite unit. Unfortunately, recent developments in infantry fighting tactics and equipment, such as portable, intelligent and autonomous networking motion sensors, have made their dangerous task even dauntier."

He looked at General Hawthorne who nodded. This was the problem they faced and now he was interesting in hearing how Mendez' team had solved it. 

"In order to increase survivability of FORECON elements, it has been decided to use transformation technology to enhance their physical features. As you already know, nanobot transformations have become available five years ago. And by now, the technology has been refined enough that it can be used in the field, simply by putting on a nanobot transformation suit and activating it. The US forces are already experimenting with transformation suits and so far the results are promising. Unclassified experiments are, for example, the use of transformation suits by the US Navy to transform soldiers temporarily into dolphins for minesweeping and sabotage defence. That way, their bodies can accomplish the same tasks a normal, trained dolphin can accomplish, but with human intelligence and no time- and money-comsuming dolphin training program."

Mendez took another sip and then proceeded. 

"Such programs simply use existing DNA to recreate a useful creature's body. But there are other, classified research programs, which go further." 

The slide changed and suddenly General Hawthorne looked at a creature which seemed to come right out of a fantasy movie. The image was grotesk - a large dragon, at least thirty feet long, with large wings, a scaly body and an evil looking head with large teeth. Which was squatting right before a hangar on what was apparently a taxi-way, and several scientists and soldiers surrounding the beast. 

"What you're here seeing is a current research project by Transformtech Defense for the US Air Force, codenamed Hellfire. The goal is to create a transformation which is able to provide close fire support with virtual impunity to standard caliber ammunition. That way, troops in the field can create their own aerial support against insurgents without heavy weapons elements, which would greatly relieve the Air Force's real combat aircraft. What you're seeing are the first successes, the creation of DNA which transforms a suit's wearer into a large, maneuverable flying dragon, armoured by his own scales. Getting it to breath fire is a little trickier, but we've figured out a solution now and are in late beta state tests."

Mendez looked at Hawthorne again. 

"So what does this have to do with the FORECON biological upgrade project? Well, originally, it was only planned to enhance the marine's body, that is giving him better senses, tougher muscles, and so on. While such improvements are unfeasable for normal troops due to the cost of the transformation suits, it is possible to equip a small elite unit. But then project Hellfire came up and it was considered why we were not doing something similar here as well. Hellfire was supposed to transform the suit's wearer into a biological weapon, one which, besides food, doesn't need ammunition or fuel or other technological necessities of normal soldiers and equipment. Why not trying to accomplish the same thing for FORECON? The idea had a large appeal, mainly to the fact that FORECON is operating on its own, therefore they have to get their equipment in and out themselves. Not needing any equipment because it's part of the current mission-body would be a large plus. Therefore it was decided to aim for a similar target as with project Hellfire. 

He pressed a button and a list appeared. 

"Here's a list made of one of our think tanks comprised of former FORECON members and our chief scientists and engineers. We wanted to know which features are desirable in the to be designed transformation. Those are: 

- Physical toughness: The created creature has to be of extraordinary strength, possess natural body armor and be suited for all kinds of hostile environments. 

- Natural sensory capabilites: Its sensory capabilities should far surpass human ones and at least approach those of typical sensory gear being deployed by FORECON. Those are specifically extremely good eyesight, perception of thermal radiation, electromagnetic fields and pheromones and night vision capability. 

- Natural weapons: It should have natural weapons which make it an extremely lethal oppenent on short and intermediate fighting distance.

- Psychological impact: The ex-FORECON-members told us that most engagements fought, back when they'd been active, had been surprise actions, therefore the creature should instill as much fear as possible on first sight, to increase psychological impact and decrease coherent enemy resistance.

Mendez made a short pause and then smiled. "General, Ma'am, I'm pleased to be able to announce you that we've not only met, but even surpassed all those requirements!" 

He pressed a button and the next slide appeared. The general frowned, looking at the image. What the hell is... wait, I know that thing!

Irritated he looked at Mendez. "And what you did was... taking something out from a movie?" he asked, gesticulating at the slide which displayed what was, undoubtedly, a big and evil looking Xenomorph, taking right out of the Alien-franchise, standing next to a warehouse, the maw slightly opened so that one could just spot his inner jaws hid behind.  

Mendez still smiled. "I know what you're thinking, General. In your place, I'd be irritated as well. But this is actually another lesson from the Hellfire project. We could've designed the creature any way we wanted, as long as it was capable of doing all the intended things. And frankly, that's what we did first, trying to design an entire new creature. That took an enormous amount of time without accomplishing anything, and then one of our younger engineers had the idea to simply take an existing design, out of fantasy books and movies perhaps, which was already incorporating most of the things we wanted - and then try to make it work through biological and genetical engineering."

He shook his head. "Of course we'd been sceptical first. But then - it was magnificient. Suddenly the project was taking shape and going forward. And when this project came up, we tried to make it right the first time. Therefore we looked for fantasy creatures which incorporated much of the design features listed by me before, and the Xenomorph out of the alien franchise practically jumped at us. It had nearly EVERYTHING we wanted. Therefore we simply took the design and ran with it. I shall now explain to you the abilities a soldier has once he's transformed into a Xenomorph." 

Hawthorne leaned back. This sounded ridiculous! But still... he knew that they actually HAD managed to create flying, armored dragons which could breath fire by combining two binary biological substances being spit out by glands in their maws. So perhaps there was reason to this insanity. His Lieutenant was busily taking notes therewhile. 

"First the body." Mendez began. "The body's mainly identical to the Xenomorph body being used in the fourth Alien movie, standing seven inches tall and 325 lbs heavy. The reason for this is that we made a poll which Xenomorph design is to be regarded the most terrifying." he smiled crookedly. "That's to satisfy the requirement that the creature should be able to intimidate any opponent it meets easily." 

"Now there are its weapons. As you can see, it has large talons at hands and feeds. Those are several inches long and consist of bones much tougher than anything we humans know. We've concluded in tests that they tend to stay sharp for litterally thousands of uses and one blow by such a hand or feet will easily rip out someones bowels or even amputate a limb. Then there's the tail. It's again as long as the entire creature is tall, with a sharp blade at the end. If its talons were capable of amputating a limb, this tail-blade can cut a human in two. Additionally, its tip is secreting a neurotoxin which will paralyze victims being stung by out for several hours. This comes in handily when prisoners have to be made." 

"Then there's its metabolism. The creature is actually not breathing and doesn't even have lungs." Dr. Mendez smiled. "It is filtering needed substances, like oxygen, out of the air by use of those big tubes on its back. This is even possible in otherwise toxic environments or underwater. You could, for all intents and purposes, put it into a Nazi gas chamber and it wouldn't even do so much as cough. Its blood plasma is made up of highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid. So if an enemy soldier somehow manages to come close to it and wounds it, he's still doomed if he gets splattered by its blood. Its physical strength is also impressive. Tests have shown that the Creature can lift more than 600 lbs easily, it's able to jump at least eight feet high from stand and can maintain a run at 35 miles per hour through rugged terrain for up to two hours."

Now Hawthorne was gaping at Mendez. If there was only a whiff of truth in this, it would be astonishing, and somehow he had the impression that everything the good Doctor had said was the real deal. But he wasn't finished yet. 

"So now that we've handled the main body, let's come to the most interesting part." 

The next slide was a zoom of the Xenomorphs big, evil, unworldly head. To think that behind this creature's nightmare face was the intelligence of a human, no, that this creature actually was a human in an especially sophisticated disguise...! 

"First there's the most potent feature - its mouth section and its inner jaws. The mouth is used for food consumption and it is able to spit its highly dangerous blood-acid. The Xenomorph can digest nearly everything, although proteine rich nourishement is to be preferred. But its main weapon are those inner jaws here." 

He showed another slide, this time a Xenomorph with a mouth torn open and its long tongue with a second mouth sticking out. 

"The inner jaws have a length of 20 inches alltogether, they can be extended up to 16 inches out of the mouth. Actually, they are not some kind of tongue but rather very tough muscle which can either be stiffened for a rod-like appearance, or used like some kind of tentacle."

Two more slides showed both cases, one where the Xenomorph had extended his inner jaws to its maximum, sticking out like a rigid pole. And the other one where the inner jaws were twisting like a snake. 

"The inner jaws are the perfect assassination and close-kill device." Dr. Mendez continued. "There is a cavern in the head behind those jaws where the creature can store air, like a compressor. When it wishes to strike, it simply releases the compressed air, and the inner jaws are pushed forward by incredible force. It is easily able to penetrate human skull, ribs or vertebrae and we even found it to be capable to punch through kevlar plates used for body armor." 

"Last comes our ultimate creation - its natural sensor suite." now the Doctor was beaming again and in the following slide, he zoomed upon the head's smooth surface. 

"As you can see, there are no eyes, no ears, no nose. But don't let yourself be fooled by this, they are not there because this creature doesn't need them! You can't see them, but the entire head is covered by macroscopic little pores. There are five kinds of pores: Taste pores, used to filter pheromones out of the environment. Vision pores for receiving light, this goes from the UV-spectrum up to the infrared, which means that the creature not only sees a broader spectrum than we, but also has thermal imaging. Then there's the bioelectric pores. They can receive and send bioelectric signals, for example they are able to sense a human-sized mammal's heartbeat over a distance of up to 300 yards. Next comes hearing pores. Those are actually kind of boring compared to the others, they are very sensitive, but besides that, not many extras. More interesting is the last type, those are also a kind of hearing device, but there's a difference - they make Xenomorphs into echo sounders, similar to bats and dolphins. Plus there are more of those tastebuds in the feets and hands, therefore the creature can 'smell' with those, too. The last sense to be mentioned is a highly devolped vibration sense, which's also working over the feets and hands."

Mendez looked triumphingly at General Hawthorne. 

"This means that a transformed recon marine can sense and locate approaching soldiers over one of those six senses: 

- Through the vibrations they are making by walking

- Through normal vision

- Through infrared vision

- Through echo detection

- Through pheromones

- Through bioelectric impulses being emitted by the enemy's heart. 

And EACH of those senses alone is way more capable than all norman human senses together. If they are used in combination, there's nothing we know of which can advance on a creature undetected. And there is one more goodie: Those creatures can communicate with each other and with normal humans over a translation device." 

The relevations had practically flashed General Hawthorne away. Lord! Any marine recon in such a body would be nearly invincible. But the last comment was carrying this too far. 

"What?" he asked shocked. "How is that possible?" He knew that no current animal transformation had the ability to speak, therefore communication was always a problem with transformed soldiers. But if they'd solved it...

"Yes, it's quite ingenious." Dr. Mendez said. "It's done over the pheromone and bioelectric pores. Those creatures can communicate with each other either over their bioelectric fields or via pheromones. Of course that means using something entirely different from what we humans know of as 'speech'. It took a while to tweak the software, but thankfully the creature has a very large head. The brain is only occupying a small part. The rest is a dedicated sensor suite, some kind of automated nervous system. It's receiving all the raw data from all those sensor pores and refining the data, then handing it over to the brain. Therefore we modified this sensor suite. To the transformed user it may appear like he's speaking and hearing normally, but what actually happens is that the sensor suite is translating the 'speech' into bioelectric impulses and/or pheromones and vice versa. And we built a technical device which's doing the same, only shifting those impulses into sounds."

General Hawthorne stared at him. Then he inhaled slowly. "I have one question, Dr. Mendez. May I?" 

Mendez nodded and Hawthorne continued. "Can it fly?" he asked and Mendez looked at him sceptically. 

"Um... no? That wasn't in the requirements..." 

"Thank god!" Hawthorne said and began to grin. "So there still IS something you can't make your creation being capable of. Don't worry, Doctor... This is great. What you've just shown me... if only half of that works, it would've been worth ten times the money!" 

Now Mendez grinned. "Well, all of it works. If you want to, you can inspect for yourself." 

Hawthorne grinned at him. "What do you mean? A demonstration? Now?" 

Mendez chuckled. "Of course. As I said before, the gear, that is, the transformation suit, is ready. By now we have several of them available, and if you want I'll escort you to our testing grounds where our test transformees are probing the things. Are you interested?" 

"Am I interested?" Hawthorne boomed. "Of course I am interested. Show me those functioning Xenomorph suits of yours!" 

Mendez acknowledged and then started leading Hawthorne and Mitchelli out of the building and down the road to a large, nondescript warehouse. 

"After you." he said and opened the door to the General and his aide. The hall they entered had a familiar shape, similar to those halls he'd visited where other transformation suits had been tested. There were workstations and large devices scattered around, cameras and headlights. There were only two scientists or engineers present, one man and one woman, and both looked at Dr. Mendez apprehensively. 

Dr. Mendez furrowed his brows. "Wait a moment please." He said and went over to the two people. 

"Hm..." General Hawthorne said. "Do you think there's problem?" 

"I don't know, Sir." Mitchelli said. "But those two don't look happy. And Mendez doesn't either. Well, we have to wait either way until they sort out whatever trouble they have." she shrugged with her shoulders.  

"That's true..." Hawthorne conceded. "Well, what do you think?" he asked her then. 

"Of the project, Sir?" 

"Yes. I think it's very promising. A marine transformed into such a Xenomorph would be nearly unstoppable. He could either evade every enemy or stalk every enemy and eliminate him silently. It would be pure superiority." 

"Yes, that's what I'm thinking, too." Sandra said. "You know that I used to be in recon, Sir. There were one or two operations where we got into deep shit. If we'd have had such bodies then, we'd have gone through the enemy like a buzzsaw through pudding. No, we wouldn't have run in the bastards in the first place!"

Hawthorne nodded. The possibilities were indeed breathtaking. 

"Oh, look!" Sandra exclaimed suddenly. "Now he's coming back, with those scientists in tow." 

"General, I'm totally sorry!" Dr. Mendez said contritely as he'd come back. "Normally there are two test transformees here, but one is on vacation and the other one has called in sick today. I'd really have liked to show you the performance of the suits, but without anybody to transform..." 

"Hm..." the General stroked his chin, disappointed. "And can't one of you use the suit to transform?" he asked the two scientists. The woman shook her head. 

"No. Well, actually, yes, technically it's possible. The suits are not coded to specific users. So basically everybody can use them. But regulations state that there are no test transformations unless at least two scientists on duty with test clearing are observing. Which would be us... Of course we could ask for volunteers, but normally-" she made a face "-there are not that many volunteers for those transformations." 

Damn! Hawthorne thought. I'd really have liked to see this... there must be somebody here we can transform. If one of the scientists from the group before would be willingly...?

He was still thinking when suddenly a pleasant contralto cleared her throat behind him. "What about me?" the voice asked and Hawthorne whirled around, mustering his aide-de-damp, gaping. 

"You... actually want to transform into THAT thing?" he asked appalled. Somehow, he absolutely couldn't imagine this beautiful woman, standing here in skirt, pantyhose and heels, becoming such a... vicious abomination like the recon Xenomorph Dr. Mendez hat created. Which was silly, of course. He'd seen a picture of the same woman standing in boots and combat gear between the splattered remains of a Taliban suicide charge. 

Sandra shrugged her shoulders again. "Sure, why not? I'm really interested in how such a body would feel and how all those theoretical sensory advantages being described by Dr. Mendez would transform into reality. Moreover, wouldn't this be the ideal solution? Then you'd have a firsthand experience report to quote from to the Chief."

She turned to both scientists while Hawthorne was still speechless. "Would that be possible?" 

"Sure." the woman said. "You'll just have to undress in one of the changing rooms and put on one of the suits I'm then giving to you. If you're willing, we can start right now." 

Grinning, Sandra looked at the General. "So what do you say, Sir? As a former recon marine, I'd really like to experience this. Plus, when we visited this light infantry project three months ago, you actually wanted me to transform, exactly for those reasons you just mentioned." 

Hawthorne gave in. Grudgingly. All her arguments were valid. And he couldn't forbid it simply because he didn't want to see his beautiful aide being changed into a hideous monstrosity.

Well, I'd never have thought that this fun at the 10th Mountain's exhibit would come bite my in the ass. he contemplated sour. Mountains were not exactly the area of responsibility for a Marine, but he made sure to keep tabs on other fighting forces' projects which could prove useful for his own service branch. When therefore 10th Mountain had presented a "radical new approach in rugged terrain warfare logistics by use of nanobots transformation suits", he'd been interested and, together with the Lieutenant, participated.

The actual innovation 10th Mountains had been demonstrating had nothing at all of the glorious ring of the lofty project title. What they'd done was simply transforming soldiers into horses and use them as transports. It actually had made sense - a human in the body of a horse wouldn't panic under heavy fire (at least not more than a normal human) and it did made transporting gear much easier. Thus the General had been interested.

So when the 10th Mountain's commander had demonstrated the concept, Sandra had found herself "volunteered" by her General. She'd taken the whole thing with humour and curiositiy, and she had made a beautiful horse.  

What the General had decided and done then and there had been testing out how useful a transformed human would really be as a horse - and being quite a good horseman, he'd taken Sandra for a ride himself. 

She'd taken it in stride and both of them had actually had a lot of fun wandering the hills and forests. And according to her, it had been a fascinating experience suddenly being in the body of a large, powerful animal, with four hooved legs and a rider on top who was actually telling her where she had to go. 

So it was possible that she'd now licked blood. Unfortunately, she'd presented exactly the right arguments. 

"Okay." he said now, not having another choice. "You're right." then he turned to Mendez. "Dr. Mendez, in absence of test transformees, could you please transform my aide, Lieutenant Sandra Mendez, into the by you developed 'Xenomorph' so that I can make my own verdict of the project?" he asked formally. 

"Of course, General!" Dr. Mendez said and the female scientist winked at Sandra. "Okay, then please follow me, Lieutenant." 

While she and Sandra entered one of the changing rooms, the other scientist started filling a large tub in the middle of the hall with a slimy, yellow substance. 

"What's that?" he asked. 

"That's nutrients." the scientist replied. "Your aide probably doesn't weigh more than 140 lbs, but the Xenomorph has more than double the weight. Therefore the nanomachines transforming her body need to get the additional mass from somewhere. They CAN scavenge it from the environment, but that takes more time and makes untidy holes in the bottom. Therefore we give them what they need before they start dismantling the building." 

Oh, that's interesting. he thought. When the 10th Mountain's transformed Sandra into a horse, they'd done this without me seeing the process. I'd always wondered where the extra mass came from...

"Okay, I'm ready." Sandras voice suddenly said from behind General Hawthorne, and he turned around. The Lieutenant had switched her dress uniform for a tight fitting transformation suit, accentuating every curve of her body. Actually, the suit was no suit, but rather the nanobots in an inactive state. 

"Please step in." the scientist told her, and Sandra obeyed. 

"Anything else I should do?" she asked.

"Yeah, it would be better if you'd go on your knees and put your hands on the ground. The Xenomorph can stand, but he's mainly using all four limbs for movement, and I don't want you to fall after your transformation."

Sandra nodded and went into the suggested position. 

The scientist checked if everything was in order and then went to the control stand a few yards away. 

"General, please come with me!" he told, and Hawthorne followed with an odd feeling in his belly. 

"How long will the transformation last?" he asked to the female scientist, who'd taken seat behind a computer console and was adjusting some parameters. 

"Not more than two minutes." she said and then looked over to the tub. "Lieutenant, are you ready to be transformed into the Xenomorph?" 

"Yes!" Sandra shouted back and was actually grinning!

"Okay! Then three... two... one... GO!" she said and pressed a button. 

General Hawthorne watched, as the nanobots began working. This wasn't the first transformation he supervised, but it was still an eerie view, one he just couldn't become accustomed to. 

The moment the scientist pressed the button, Sandra's suit seemed to... well, liquify. In effect all what happened was that the inert nanobots were activated and started their task. So it suddenly looked as if the Lieutenant was covered in some dark looking goo which began spreading over all of her skin. Soon there was only her outline to be seen, like a human-sized, human-shaped liquid being held in place by some force. 

Of course that wasn't happening. Under this liquid surface, there was still the Lieutenant with her body. But not for long, because now the nanobots started their real work, turning inwards and beginning to reshape Sandra's body. 

On the monitor, Hawthorne could see a transparent computer-animated image of Sandra's body, of her bone-structure and her inner organs. And he could already see how it was changing. As was the unreal, liquid shape in front of him. It was becoming bigger, sucking in the nutrient soup she was standing in. 

He features began to divert from being a typical human's, instead becoming something else. Behind her, the liquid extended, encasing her new tail the nanobots were constructing. Large liquid-covered tubes extended from her body, her new breathing organs. The changes at her legs and arms were mere subtle, but nonetheless noticable, the limbs becoming longer, more muscular, the fingers and toes starting to expand with talons. 

And then her head. There were no facial features visible, thanks to the liquid, but it was unmissable that it was changing rapidly. Becoming longer, bigger... 

Hawthornes eyes darted to the monitor again. The transformation counter already topping 90 seconds. 

Have I truly been seized by the changes wrought upon her for so long? he wondered, but then he looked at the image displaying what was happening under the sheat of nanobots. Nearly all humanity in the bone-structure of Sandra was gone, her displayed body's structure now mimicking the Xenomorph's. And her innards being something totally different.

A soft tone sounded at the counter stopped. 

"Transformation finished, 107 seconds total." the female scientist stated, obviously pleased by the result. "Nanobot sheat will now be stored inside the body."

General Hawthorne watched in morbid fascination, as the liquid seemed to pool away into nothingness. Of course it wasn't, but rather absorbing itself into the lieutenant's body, storing itself in her bones, to be available for retransformation. But in the process of doing so, it revealed the body which had been, until now, hidden below the sheat. And it wasn't, of course, Lieutenant Sandra Mitchelli's body. Not even close. 

As the liquid disappeared, black, chitin-like body surface came to view. A long tail with a wicked blade. A strange, rugged main body, whose organic features nearly looked like abstract versions of tubes. Legs and arms became visible, sporting great, evil talons. But all those changes the General only observed on a side note. His actual focus was on the head, his palate suddenly dry. 

The nanobot flowed down Sandra's head, revealing... a monster's head. A long, elongated head, void of such features like ears, eyes or a nose. Instead there was just a mouth, held by powerful muscles, bare of skin. The mouth's sides were wide open, so that General Hawthorne could directly look inside the maw, seeing more teeth hidden there. 

"Transformation has been successful." the female scientist acknowledged now and started scribbling somethine in a logbook. 

Meanwhile, Sandra, still sitting in the tub which'd held the nutrients, began to move. Slowly she rose up, her impressive body's chest being higher than Hawthorne's eyes. She moved her arms and fingers, now sporting only four digits, then her long tail gathered, reaching around from behind and positioning the blade directly in front of her eyeless head. For a few seconds she moved it around in front of her, and then retracted it, storing it behind her body now. 

But then, her lips began to part and Hawthorne caught sight of of large teeth, human and alien alike. The incissors in front looked almost normal, but the large, inclined fangs at the sides were something else indeed. Like the lips before, this array parted now as well, with Sandra opening her unearthly maw. 

Now, clear saliva began to flow from her visage, and Hawthorne shivered, for behind this first array of teeth, he could now see a second, hidden deep in her mouth. A condition, which didn't endure. Because now, she moved this second array of teeth outwards, exiting the mouth on a long, strong bundle of muscles. 

She extended her inner jaws, the name Dr. Mendez had given to those things, up to 16 inches outwards and began opening and closing the miniature jaw at its tips, bending it on its flexible muscle rod to all sides. 

My god... General Hawthorne thought, while he watched the creature which had the mind of his beautiful aide hidden behind this nightmare face. The images were scary enough. But seeing her, seeing it now, with my own eyes, it's utterly terryfying. I can't imagine any soldier on this planet who wouldn't be horrified by such an abomination suddenly confronting him. 

Meanwhile, Sandra apparently had enough from playing with her new tongue. Instead she retracted it and closed her mouth with a sharp inbreath of air. Hawthorne frowned. Dr. Mendez had said that the Xenomorph was using the rods on his back for breathing, so why did Sandra...? 

He eyed the Dr. speculatingly, and the man grinned. "Don't be startled now." he said and looked at Sandra and Hawthorne did the same. 

Slowly, Sandra opened her maw now again and then, with a sudden bang, her long inner jaws shot forward, flashing in front of her and then retreating instantly. It had only taken moments, and before Hawthorne could comprehend what had just happened, she was just again sitting there, maw only half closed now. 

"She did just use her aerial compressor for accelerating her inner jaws." Dr. Mendez explained, smilingly. "That way, she can instantly accelerate her jaws to a couple of hundred miles per hour, striking instantly. You've seen how fast it happened, do you think a human soldier would have had a chance?" 

Hawthorne shook his head. "No..." he said slowly. "No, I don't think he would." 

Mendez grinned, and then looked at Sandra. "Lieutenant, do you want to join us?" 

Immediately, the big Xenomorph, or rather Lieutenant Mitchelli, 'looked up' (if you could say so of a creature without eyes), then went down on all fours and smoothly exited the tub, silently and efficiently rounding the control stand, her tail hovering inches above the floor's surface. She stopped in front of Hawthorne but now, instead of standing like before, she simply took a cowering stance, resting on her legs, looking up at the General. 

Hawthorne swallowed as he studied his aide's face, looking for even a little bit of her humanity, but found nothing. Instead, he was inadvertently shuddering again as he looked at that terrifying creature, squatting before him, with slightly opened jaws, behind which he could see the inner jaws lurking. That there was saliva flowing down her teeth didn't help, neither did the motion of her tail which was restlessly jerking from one side to the either, her blade's bone flickering evilly in the artificial light. 

Dr. Mendez noticed Hawthorne's look. "In case you're wondering about her saliva production, that's another deliberate feature taken from the movies. The breathing tubes on her back are constantly removing moisture from the air, therefore there's no danger of her becoming dehydrated. But the effect is rather... unsettling, isn't it?" 

The general nodded. Up close she was even more terrifying than he'd thought. 

My god... it flashed again through his head. I just can't believe that this... creature is my aide! A normally beautiful woman!

Dr. Mendez seemed to read Hawthorne's mind, because he looked at Sandra now. 

"Sandra, can you please make a thumbs up only to show us that you're still there?" 

Hawthorne watched wide-eyed as the Xenomorph before him raised one of its claws, making a clear thumbs-up sign, while opening its maw a little more and starting an unnerving, choppy snarl. Probably a Xenomorph's version of a little laugh. 

"Thanks, Sandra." Dr. Mendez continued. "And, do you like it being a Xenomorph? Thumb up again if yes." 

And again the Xenomorph raised its hand. 

Dr. Mendez chuckled. "Well, I'd have thought so. So... why don't you show the General your inner jaws up close? You've already played with them, as we've seen, but I'm sure it would be more impressing if the General would get a good look at them from short distance." 

At once, Sandra rose up, bringing her head at Hawthorne's eyes' height. She opened her maw fully again and rattling her inner jaws extended, stopping short inches from his saucer-wide eyes, opening and closing and moving around like a snake, allthewhile hissing viciously. 

"O-Okay, Lieutenant!" he managed to say. "I think that's enough." 

And with an audible 'clack' the extended inner jaw retracted into Sandra's mouth again. Apparently satisfied, she put her nightmarish body back into her crouching stance again. 

Again Dr. Mendez chuckled. "Can be a bit intimidating up close, can it? Well, that's the idea. But now..." he looked at the male scientist who had been working at a large piece of equipment. 

"Are you ready, Sanders?" 

The scientist gave a thumbs up. "I am. I just switched it on. The Lieutenant has just to think of talking, and then..." he looked at the Xenomorph, waitingly. 

The General nearly jumped in consternation as suddenly a female contralto sounded behind him, although it had some kind of mechanical undertone.

"Thinking of tal- hey!" suddenly, like a homing missile, Sandra moved her head in direction of the sound - a large speaker at the big machine the scientist had been working on. 

"That is interesting." said the voice again and the general looked first at the machine, then at Sandra. 

"Lieutenant... is that your voice...?" he asked apprehensively. 

"Yes!" it came back through the speaker. "I'm not sounding like me, do I?" she asked, stood up and went to the machine, brushing by General Hawthorne who swiftly stepped aside to let the seven feet monstrosity pass. 

Dr. Mendez shook his head. "No. You're talking via your bioelectric pores, and those signals are transformed by this machine into audible voice. Therefore the voice is artifical and not yours. Sanders here simply set it to a female contralto." 

Now the general managed to cast off his stiffness. "Lieutenant?" he asked, looking at the big creature. "How does it feel to be a Xenomorph?" 

"Well, it's great, Sir!" Sandra exclaimed and the translation machine actually managed to put exuberation in her mechanical sounding voice. "I'm feeling so powerful. And then there are those jaws I've just shown you. It's so weird having them, but at the same time it feels natural. But the real knocker are my senses." 

In a very humanlike gesture so totally alien to this big, evil-looking Xenomorph, Sandra shook her head. "You can't believe what I'm perceiving. That is... pure and simple awesomeness, Sir!" 

"Um..." Hawthorne knit his brows. "Could you please elaborate?" 

"If I may." Dr. Mendez intervened diffidently. "Sandra, let's start with pheromones. How do we smell...?" 

"Well..." Sandra said a bit apprehensively. "You smell... enthusiastic, but also a bit tense. Your two scientists, they are a little concerned, probably for your reaction to the little problem of not having any transformee today. And the general..." her voice trailed off. 

"General, with uttermost and indifinite respect, I'm reporting you my current body's reception of your pheromones. Sir, you're smelling like you're scared shitless, Sir!" 

Hawthorne ogled the Xenomorph. But then he begain to laugh, relieved. "Sandra, you're totally right. I'm nearly pissing myself here because you are, frankly, the uttermost terrifying thing I've seen in my life, EVER. Which probably means-" he looked at the scientists "-that this little project was a complete success."

He eyed Sandra in her fearful form again. "So you can smell... fear?" 

"Yes, Sir." she acknowledged. "And not only that. I can feel your heartbeat, I can feel all your heartbeats, I can even feel the heartbeat of two people who're currently passing by this warehouse. And I can see not only your bodies in incredible clarity, I can also see thermal radiation, I can see how your hands are sweaty and warmer then the rest of your body. And even without all those senses, I can 'sense' every corner of this room, where you are, where the gear is, like some kind of radar image." 

She stopped, apparently looking for a word. "Sir, it's unlike everything I've ever experienced. It's like an image composed of several overlays, a bioelectric image, a visual image, a thermal image, a 'smell' image and a radar image. And everything working together, forming one big image in my head. The Doctor is right, Sir. There's probably nothing, in this hall I DON'T perceive. For example there's a nest of rats in the southeast ventilation shaft at the other side of the hall. I can feel their heartbeats. And then there's the pheromone sense, that's like some kind of time-machine as well. I can tell you exactly what door the two scientists here took this morning when they entered the building." 

Sandra fell silent for several seconds. "Sir, it's like God's own view. If I'd have this on the battlefield... NOTHING would get past me." 

"Battlefield is exactly the right prompt!" Dr. Mendez now stepped in. "I'd like to have another thing demonstrated... Miss Dawn, if you would, please?" 

"Yes, Doctor." the woman said and disappeared in a store-room. The General and Sandra looked interested as she came back, pulling some kind of human-sized puppet in a combat suit. She parked it in the middle of the room and then returned.

"So, Lieutenant." Dr. Mendez said. "I'd like you to try out your natural weapons now at that puppet." 

"All right." she said and in the next moment, she jumped in the air, landing on all four limbs and scurrying to the puppet in an almost incredible pace. But after arriving there, she looked tentatively at the puppet, as if unsure what to do. 

"So... how should I attack it now...?" 

"Well, for starters... don't attack it." Dr. Mendez said. "Simply pretend it's not a soldier, but a civilian. Who you want to scare away as far as possible from the combat zone. How would you do this?" 

"Hm..." Sandra muttered and then she put her body in a crouched stance again. But this time, an offensive crouched stance. If General Hawthorne hadn't known better, he'd have thought that this was bloodlusting animal instead of the highly intelligent human it really was. 

Sandra crouched nearer, now slowly parting her lips, revealing her salivating maw. Her tail thrashed around madly, and then her teeth parted, now thick streams of clear saliva flowing down like some waterfall, forming a puddle below her head. But she didn't care. Instead, she began slowly elongating her inner jaws, pushing them out of her maw, hissing and snarling vicously and the general gulped. 

The sight of the enraged, hissing monster was utterly terrifying, and for a short moment an image of Sandra, in her uniform, smiling, flashed through his mind. It was entirely unthinkable that this was her and yet it was true. 

Sandra kept her stance up for half a minute and then retracted her inner jaws. 

General Hawthorne was still frozen, but Dr. Mendez clapped approvingly. "Well done, that was really terrifying." he beamed. "It appears you're a natural!" 

"Well... thanks." Sandra said and there was just a tiny bit of embarassment hidden in her. 

"So... let's begin with... dismantling our puppet." Dr. Mendez grinned. "How about you spit some of your acid at it first?" 

"Okay." Sandra said, opened her maw and in the next moment, something yellowish smacked into the puppet's face. Immediately, it began bubbling and dissolving. 

"Wow." Hawthorne said. "That is some nasty stuff. I guess if he'd been a real soldier he would've been dead." 

"Yes, probably." Dr. Mendez confirmed. "But since it's a puppet... we can go on. Sandra... now I want you to use all of your body to 'kill' the puppet."

This time, Sandra didn't reply. Instead, she jumped right in front of the puppet, lifted her hand, and in the next moment, the puppet's right arm went flying, ripped off by her clean stroke. But she didn't even stop. Her tail flashed, tearing off the puppets legs in one clean stroke, tossing it away a dozen yards. A distance, which was meaningless for her assault. She covered the distance in one jump and then positioned herself over the mangled remains. He heard the sharp intake of air and knew what would come next. Sandras maw opened again, and then her inner jaws flashed, thrusting into the puppet's torso, going threw its kevlar armour like a knife through butter. It retracted and he could actually see that she had parts of the puppet's plastic seized in her inner jaws. 

For the third time this day, General Hawthorne felt a shiver running down his back, as he looked at the creature he knew to be his aide, standing above the shreddered remains of its target, unworldly maw wide open in a victorious snarl. 

This is going to change warfare as we know it... he thought. And not to the better. But... better us having this technology first than our enemies.

At the drive back two hours later, he looked at his aide, restored to her beautiful form, pantyhose-encased legs put together, staring out of the window dazed. 

"Your missing it, aren't you?" he asked, and Sandra looked at him questioningly. "The senses, I mean. The power. Don't tell me you don't. I can see it."

The Lieutenant sighed. "Yes, Sir." she confessed. "It was... incredible. This power. This perception. Now being a human again is like... like... suddenly finding yourself being a quadruple amputee."

She shook her head and the general grinned sadly. He knew that today he'd lost his aide. 

One year later: 

"Gentlemen!" Major General Hawthorne announced his audience. "After I've just explain you what we've achieved in project Krypton, I'll present you the soldiers of the first Xenomorph company fielded, United States Marine Corps, 2nd Division, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, Bravo Company!" 

A curtain fell and the audience gasped, partially in surprise, partially in terror, as three, large Xenomorphs were revealed, slowly advancing next to General Hawthorne's lectern, then raising themselves up to full height. Wide-eyed, the audience looked at those three creatures, which were scanning the crowd now, the audition room's headlights highlighting their evil-looking maws. 

"I've the honor to greet Bravo Company's three platoon leader, First Lieutenant Mark Stone, First Lieutenant Jennifer Bale and First Lieutenant Ben Wilder." 

Each Xenomorph opened his maw on mention of its name, pushing out its inner jaws hissing. General Hawthorne chuckled as he saw the audience's terrified reaction upon those action's. Of course they'd known what project Krypton had accomplished, but seeing it live was something entirely else - as he himself had experienced a year ago. 

"You don't have to worry." he said now. "This is our transformed soldier's equivalent of a salute. But there's another soldier I'm very honored to present you today." he continued. "A soldier, who made vital contributions to the whole project, aiding to its successfull conclusion more than everyone else." 

And that was true indeed, General Hawthorne reflected. After her experience as the Xenomorph, Hawthorne had released Lieutenant Mitchelli from her duties as his aide-de-camp and instead send her to project Krypton. She'd proven to be invaluable, for she'd had ideas nobody of the other, solely male military advisors had even considered. 

A second curtain fell and now, the entire audience was suddenly silent. And Hawthorne could understand it all too well. Seeing a normal Xenomorph for the first time was terrifying. Seeing Sandras current form for the first time was worse - it froze most people solid in terror. 

"I therefore have the great honor to introduce you to Captain Sandra Mitchelli, commanding officer of Bravo Company, and currently transformed into the biological command and control center for leading her company's Xenomorph warriors." 

He was smiling while the petrified crowd watched Sandra making her entrance. Regally moving her 20 feet high body onto the stage, her massive head erect and maw opened, displaying dagger-sized fangs, her inner jaws hovering behind. Two large hands at her side, and two smaller hands below, folded across her giant chest, followed by the immense tail. 

General Hawthorne watched, as the giant Xenomorph Queen, the communications node between the normal Xenomorphs of her company and the batallion's commanding officers, positioned her frightening body behind her much smaller subordinates, opened her maw and released her inner jaws in a salute. 

I wish you all the luck of the world with your new command position, Sandra. Hawthorne thought silent but earnestly. You've earned it.