Advent/Terminus

A group of treasure hunters have headed out to an uncharted planet to seek riches. At this particular planet, there lays an unexplored pyramid made by ancient alien races. Many teams have already mysteriously disappeared inside. But this expedition is different, because joining the team is Zorn, the only know survivor of a chest-burster, and thus is mostly android. Also along with the team is a camera man recording the story for big money. The core team includes a husband and wife. At first the road is smooth sailing because it has been cleaned out by previous explores. Finally the reach a room that had been sealed shut. Upon opening it they see the remains of all the previous expeditions. Suddenly an alien attacks and kills the wife and the reaming three retreat to get more guns. They begin the fight and the humans get the upper hand, until greed sets in. While Zorn is pinned by the alien, the husband begins looting the coffins instead of aiding Zorn. He finds himself a nice face-hugger surprise but luckily fights it off. On the other hand, Zorn who was left to struggle the alien snaps the alien’s neck. But, the acid blood falls right on top of Zorn leading to is unpleasant demise. While the cameraman is filming this, the husband makes his great escape so he does not have to split the findings. The cameraman, feeling anger that the husband would leave him, knocked him unconscious. The face-hugger quickly found its new host. The cameraman makes it back to the ship, only to find an alien waiting inside to spell his demise. Shortly after, a new exploring ship lands at the pyramid to seek it fortunes and eliminate any other explores that might interfere with their gold.

Summary:

As the final chapters of the alien omnibus collection this story serves as a quick summary of the downfall of man and how the alien infestation has become as much of a part of society as human sinfulness. As the story clearly shows, greed and money are the roots of all evil. People willing let other die in order to get a better profit. The cameraman wanted to see gory and action scenes because they would sell better. The public wanted to see horror and pain. This is the human condition: a corrupted society a war, pain, and greed. In some places, believe in God has vanished. More troublesome than the aliens themselves are the people that make androids attack others or breed/capture aliens to allow them to do harm to others.  In this world, some believe that the aliens are the wrath of God played out to punish the sins of mankind.  I believe that the authors of these tales also wished for the reader to see that no matter how gruesome the aliens might be, humans can still be crueler. Yet, all hope is not lost. There are some redeeming people, just not in this tale. The aliens are a reflection of the sinful nature of humans.