The scenario: Colonel Adrian Travers of the United Systems Colonial Marines has been sent to a secured lab located on an arteficial island off the coast of the Restored Kingdom of Ethiopia. He's not here on any sort of raiding duties, but to check up on research being done on the xenomorphs by professor Ramla Burke, a reknowned biologist, and of course her crew. This is of course, during the early days of the alien infestation on Earth. Before the infestation got to a critical point, while it was still being kept secret and the Earth's military was trying to take it out hive by hive with tactical units. But the hives have started to adapt new strategies, and containment is becoming harder and harder.
Quote:
Professor Ramla Burke: Behold, Mr. Travers... My pets.
Colonel Adrian Travers: Why are they so different from each other..?
Professor Burke: Alright... In nature, what defines a species is that they cannot interbreed with individuals of another species and produce viable offspring. Very few species are even close enough to create sterile hybrids. But, this barrier is far from impermiable. In the lab, hybrids are creatable. Though most combinations seem to create malformed infants which quickly die, or die during developement. However, back in 2001, scientists in America took the rhesus macaque monkey and spliced its genetics with those of a jellyfish through gene swapping.
Colonel Travers: Why a jellyfish of all things..?
Professor Burke: Well, these jellyfish had DNA strands that were easy to locate and isolate because they would glow under a blacklight. What do you think they wound up with?
Colonel Travers: Well, the idea makes me think of a bald monkey with small stinging tentacles dangling off of it. But this all sounds familiar... Are they those monkeys that used to be popular at raves?
Professor Burke: Exactly! They were perfectly healthy and normal baby monkeys, but their hair and fingernails glowed green under a blacklight. At first, not all that much came of it... But it was very important for genetic research, and later became something of commercial interest. They did the same thing with rice fish in Taiwan, and zebrafish down in Texas. What they got there was fish that glowed in the dark. And though it was for the sake of genetic research, once again they became an item of importance mainly to the economy...
Colonel Travers: We mastered the art of making living light shows! But what's this have to do with these... Creatures?
Professor Burke: They're doing what it took science roughly twenty-three HUNDRED years to figure out we really could do... But with an amazing rate of success and greater efficiency than we can do even now. And this is while they're only developing embryos... And with animals not native to wherever it is they come from. Something in them somehow reads genetic code better than man's greatest super computers!
Colonel Travers: So, professor... What would you call this?
Professor Burke: I call it... The DNA Reflex.
Colonel Adrian Travers: Why are they so different from each other..?
Professor Burke: Alright... In nature, what defines a species is that they cannot interbreed with individuals of another species and produce viable offspring. Very few species are even close enough to create sterile hybrids. But, this barrier is far from impermiable. In the lab, hybrids are creatable. Though most combinations seem to create malformed infants which quickly die, or die during developement. However, back in 2001, scientists in America took the rhesus macaque monkey and spliced its genetics with those of a jellyfish through gene swapping.
Colonel Travers: Why a jellyfish of all things..?
Professor Burke: Well, these jellyfish had DNA strands that were easy to locate and isolate because they would glow under a blacklight. What do you think they wound up with?
Colonel Travers: Well, the idea makes me think of a bald monkey with small stinging tentacles dangling off of it. But this all sounds familiar... Are they those monkeys that used to be popular at raves?
Professor Burke: Exactly! They were perfectly healthy and normal baby monkeys, but their hair and fingernails glowed green under a blacklight. At first, not all that much came of it... But it was very important for genetic research, and later became something of commercial interest. They did the same thing with rice fish in Taiwan, and zebrafish down in Texas. What they got there was fish that glowed in the dark. And though it was for the sake of genetic research, once again they became an item of importance mainly to the economy...
Colonel Travers: We mastered the art of making living light shows! But what's this have to do with these... Creatures?
Professor Burke: They're doing what it took science roughly twenty-three HUNDRED years to figure out we really could do... But with an amazing rate of success and greater efficiency than we can do even now. And this is while they're only developing embryos... And with animals not native to wherever it is they come from. Something in them somehow reads genetic code better than man's greatest super computers!
Colonel Travers: So, professor... What would you call this?
Professor Burke: I call it... The DNA Reflex.
