Rage War Incursion 28

Lieder took point and probed ahead, and ten minutes
after entering the strange ship and forging onward and upward, she held up a hand.

"Johnny. Bridge."

"And?"

"Another battle." She disappeared through an opening, and Faulkner and Mains followed. The android was pinned to the wall at the far end of the bridge, several yards from the floor. A wide, heavy blade had pierced its chest and held him there, its handle heavy with hardened drips of his pale gray blood. His head hung low, chin touching his chest. The android's legs had been ripped off, one arm crushed, stomach slashed open and emptied, so that his complex insides hung below him like some sick decoration. It looked as if it had happened some time ago. Yet still his eyes watched them approach across the bridge.

"Who the hell are you?" Mains asked.

The android smiled. It wasn't particularly human, neither in appearance, nor in that small movement. It had basic humanoid features, but there had been no real effort to give it a personality. This thing had not been made to fool anyone.

"Patton?" Mains asked.

The thing stuck on the wall tried to speak. Its jaw was broken and its tongue had been pulled out, teeth smashed in by a heavy weapon. It snorted. Scattered around the bridge were a score of blasted, melted Xenomorph corpses. At the feet of the android were many more, a slick of destruction piled on and around the body of the one Yautja that had made it this far. Mains couldn't help but admire the Yautja. Its body was hideously wounded and acid-burnt, and he guessed many of those had been inflicted while it was still alive. Its left arm was a pulped mess, its clawed right hand clotted with clothing and pale, raw flesh. Before dying, it had pinned its aggressor to the wall and slashed him to pieces.-pg.314-315 chpt.23