Literature / Aliens: Phalanx

Aliens: Phalanx is a 2020 novel written by Scott Sigler, set in the Alien universe.

The island of Ataegina is in turmoil. Tension is rising between the holds, even those that are ostensibly trading partners. Shortages of supplies mean people are in desperate need of medicine to avoid dying of flu, Forgetter's disease, or weakening sickness. Supplies are short because the runners who carry trade goods between Holds are experiencing an unusually high rate of casualties. Probably because the demons, who mostly move by night, are becoming increasingly common during the day, seeking humans to kill or take away to Black Smoke Mountain, where the Demon Mother uses her magic Spiders to transform people into more demons.

Ahiliyah Cooper and her team of runners, Brandun Barrow and Creen Dinashin, have just returned to Lemeth Hold from a run carrying critical medical supplies, when they are tasked for another run for more of the same. Liyah tries to convince Margrave Aulus Darby that something has changed, that the demons are growing bolder and more dangerous, but no one in Lemeth Hold takes the word of a woman seriously. Setting out from the mountain fortress again with barely any time to rest, Liyah, Brandun, and Creen are about embark on one of the most dangerous runs of their lives, and make history on the island of Ataegina.

Ataegina is a lost human colony world, isolated for so long they've regressed to a roughly medieval stage of technology. With only spears, shields, and "hidey-suits" to protect them from the Xenomorphs roaming the wilderness, can humanity survive? Or will Ataegina soon belong to the aliens the humans can only call "demons?"

The sequel short story "Another Mother", set twenty years after the events of the novel, was published as part of the anthology Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey.

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This novel provides examples of the following tropes:

• Alien Sky: Ataegina has three moons, called the Three Sisters.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Liyah, Brandun, and Creen arrive at Keflan Hold to find the demons have gotten in and killed or kidnapped effectively the entire population. Jantal and Dakatera quickly follow.
• Apocalypse How: The story picks up with Ataegina in the midst of at least Continental Societal Collapse, with the few surviving humans living in the Holds and unable to practice even simple agriculture. As the novel progresses, the demons are growing more active and working towards Continental Species Extinction, ridding the island of Ataegina of human beings completely. There are references to the possibility of people beyond the island, mostly the Northerners, but what level they might be at in the absence of demons is not explored, nor is the question of if the demons would spread beyond the island addressed.
• Baby Factory: The one way women in Lemeth Hold can get out of runner duty. If you're pregnant, you're excused from runs for the duration of the pregnancy, and for six months after giving birth. Once those six months are up, back to being a runner. . . unless you've gotten pregnant again. At age thirty, your obligation is discharged. Some women try to stay perennially pregnant from ages 16 to 30 to avoid having be a runner at all.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Creen and Liyah have killed the Demon Mother, they realize the demons that have hatched from captives from the last few battles have matured and will soon be on them. Creen is prepared to end them both, when they realize the demon screams they're hearing are pained, and accompanied by the shouts of humans. They hold off, and soldiers burst in, having attacked Black Smoke Mountain in hopes of killing the Demon Mother and rescuing Liyah.
• Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Holds are lit by "glowtubes" which channel river water through glass tubes set in the walls. The water contains bioluminescent bacteria, so the water provides light.
• Chastity Dagger: Combined with the effect of Cyanide Pill. All runners carry a small knife called "little friend," to be used if they are found by a demon. The runner is to plunge the blade into the side of their neck, then pull outwards, slashing their own throat to prevent them being carried away to Black Smoke Mountain and made into a new demon.
• Child Soldiers: Sort of. Runners start at age 16, or 15 in Brandun's case because he's so big. They have to run until age thirty, or until men complete five runs or women complete ten.
• Crapsack World: Thanks to the Xenomorph infestation, humanity has regressed to a medieval society and technology. Everyone has to be useful to their Hold; if they aren't, they are executed because the Hold can't afford to spend resources on someone who isn't contributing. While there are some relatively cushy jobs, everyone has to be a runner first (at least, in Lemeth Hold), and everyone has to train for the military reserves at least some of the time.
• Death World: Ataegina, again thanks to the presence of a Xenomorph hive. Only the Holds deep within the mountains are safe, and at the start of the story, that safety is steadily slipping away.
• Double Standard: Men have to complete five runs to discharge their duty as runners. Women have to make ten.
• Earned Stripes: Runners get a tattoo after each successful run; a single vertical line. At the end of their fifth run, they get a "slash," a diagonal line crossing the four vertical ones (hash marks, essentially). A single slash is enough to free a man from his obligation to be a runner, women need a "double slash."
• End of an Era: With the Demon Mother dead and most of the demons slain, the age of hiding in holds and trading with whatever meager resources three runners at a time can carry is over. The people of Ataegina have retaken the surface and started farming again, living in the daylight, and the Holds are now unified as one nation. And with the potential of Northerners starting raiding again, the age where humans make war on other humans is also returning. Well, you can't have everything.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Cleaning Creen's very old and dirty caminus tea mugs, Liyah notices a white residue. She quickly figures out this is the active ingredient that lets caminus leaves neutralize acid blood, and Creen refines it into a poison that kills demons by clotting their burning blood.
• Everyone Knows Morse Code: The signalers who communicate between the Holds do. They use setups of mirrors and shutters to flash messages from mountaintop to mountaintop.
• Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: The Ataeginans believe that if a demon takes you, it will bring you to Black Smoke Mountain, where the Demon Mother will use her magic Spiders to transform you into a demon. This is a roughly accurate summation of the Xenomorph life cycle. Liyah, Creen, and Brandun are all captured and subjected to this, but Creen hits on the idea of eating raw caminus leaves before the facehuggers latch on. Since caminus leaves have a chemical that reacts poorly with the Xenomorph's acid blood, it also impedes the growth of the Chestburster embryo, rendering it almost stillborn and allowing it to be vomited up. Unpleasant, but significantly better than how things usually go.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: A few, seen in Healing Herb, and the caminus leaves, which have the useful side effect of neutralizing Xenomorph acid blood, which also makes them an effective poison against Xenomorphs.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Holds are roughly equivalent to the Greek city-states, with similar levels of technology and tactics. Bronze spears and shields used in a phalanx (hence the novel's name).
• Fantasy World Map: The book includes a map of Ataegina, showing the Holds, Black Smoke Mountain, and few other notable regions.
• Greed: Despite the medieval setting meaning a lack of corporate malfeasance, this human flaw continues to play a large role in humanity's interactions with the Xenomorphs. Keflan Hold is believed to be lying about their reserves of Capertine powder, desperately needed to save lives in Lemeth Hold, to drive the price up. Liyah cannot fathom why someone would withhold badly needed medicine when lives are at stake.
• Head-in-the-Sand Management: The Council of Lemeth Hold, and especially the Margrave, believes that the other Holds fell because they messed up; tactically, strategically, or religiously. Lemeth Hold, on the other hand, is obviously perfectly safe. . . so long as everyone continues to listen to the Margrave.
• Healing Herb: The Capertine mold that only grows in Keflan Hold can be refined into a powder that cures the flu currently ravaging Lemeth Hold. Dakatera Hold produces plinton fruit which helps treat Forgetter's disease. Lemeth has imbid flowers which cure weakening sickness.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Brandun sticks the Demon Mother with a poisoned spear, but she crushes him to death in the process.
• IKEA Weaponry: Runners carry their short spears broken down. One shaft with the butt spike, a coupler, another shaft, then the spear heads. The spear heads are held in back scabbards, the other pieces on their packs, so that if a runner has to drop their pack they still have a weapon, as the spear heads double as short swords. When assembled, the spears are still only "short" compared to the longer spears used by warriors.
• Insufferable Genius: Creen. He's a genius in that he's able to memorize Morse code in seconds, and pick apart, analyze, and deduce all sorts of things from observations. The insufferable part comes from him having no patience with anyone dumber than he is (which is everyone), and being rude, foul-mouthed, and insulting to everyone.
• Lady Land: Downplayed, but Dakatera Hold has a Margravine instead of a Margrave, two female council members, and female warriors and officers. The downplaying is that men and women are roughly equal, but compared to how male-dominated the other Holds are, it stands out.
• Made of Iron: The Xenomorphs. Liyah knows, when Sinesh gives her a 25% kill rate with archers in their wargames, that this is a ridiculously optimistic estimate. Only a headshot with a heavy crossbow can put a demon down in one shot; arrows from an ordinary bow are more likely to just glance off, and while heavy crossbow bolts can punch through their exoskeletons, it can take four or more body shots to get a kill. Spears can also punch through, but demons can survive wounds that would kill a human, and any wound splatters the attacker and others with burning blood.
• Mistaken for Aliens: Inverted. The humans are too primitive to know about other worlds and aliens, so they can only classify the Xenomorphs as demons.
• Mobile Shrubbery: Runners wear "hidey-suits", twine netting with caminus branches woven into it, basically a Ghillie suit. This allows them to hide from demons in the plentiful vegetation of Ataegina. It also turns out that caminus leaves neutralize a Xenomorph's acidic blood.
• Mole Monster: Xenomorphs hatched from the native vooterverts have shovel-like front claws good for tunneling, which lets the "demons" tunnel into the Holds and attack the people within.
• Mythology Gag: At one point, Creen confides in Liyah that he doesn't think he has the courage to use his "little friend" on himself, but doesn't want to get taken by the demons, and asks her to see to it. Liyah replies that if it comes to it, she'll take responsibility for both of them. The exchange very closely mirrors one between Ripley and Hicks in Aliens.
• Nice Day, Deadly Night: Subverting this is a plot point. It's generally safe to move around in the day, and the demons mostly come out at night. But they have been spotted during the day, so no one considers it unusual that Liyah has spotted several during the day on her recent runs. No one, that is, except Liyah, who's certain it's a pattern, that the demons are increasing their daytime presence to search for the Holds and ways to break in.
• Only Sane Man: Well, woman. Liyah believes herself to be this, the only one who sees the rising threat the demons pose, that the old tricks of hiding in the Holds aren't going to work for much longer, and that the Holds need to band together to have any chance of survival, not squabble and fight amongst themselves over trade good prices and religious and cultural differences. She considers the possibility of two Holds going to war to be suicidally stupid when the demons are out there and don't give a fuck about Hold politics or religion, but are focused entirely on destroying everything that isn't a demon.
• Poisoned Weapons: Creen and Liyah discover the key ingredient in caminus leaves that neutralizes the demons' burning blood; refining this extract makes for a potent toxin when introduced to a demon through an injury. Liyah, Creen, and Brandon go to test it, and while it does work, it takes some time. Fortunately, barrels of the extract had been refined, giving the defenders of Lemeth a way to strike back against the invading demons.
• Rank Up: Ahiliyah starts the story as just a runner, then becomes a "slash" (having completed five runs), then becomes Senior Runner, and shortly thereafter, General.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Margrave Aulus Darby presents as this, firm but fair, and making the best decisions he can for the future of his people. Subverted in that he's a Dirty Coward who's only interested in holding on to his own life and power.
• The Reveal: How Ataegina came to be what it is. The demon nest in Black Smoke Mountain is at least partially a crashed colony ship, and there's a (barely) still functional synthetic aboard, Zacariah. Zachariah explains that he was activated by the ship's captain to land the ship, which had been badly sabotaged, the crew fallen to infighting, and at least one Xenomorph was aboard somehow. The sabotage including killing all colonists in cryostasis over the age of 11, so Zachariah sent the surviving children out with nothing but the clothes on their backs, a few seed kits, and some vague instructions for evading Xenomorphs. Ataegina's bronze-age society is the result of those kids growing up and doing their best build some kind of civilization.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: While they aren't technically "royals," as Margrave/Margravine is an elected position, the Margravine of Dakatera Hold is this. She was a runner well before she was a Margravine, and volunteered for extra runs to bring plinton fruit to Takanta when they desperately needed it to fight Forgetter's disease. She made these runs on her own, without official permission, six times, just because she knew lives were at stake and she could help. When she ends up taking charge over the remnants of Lemeth Hold, she helps out in a support capacity during the fighting as much as she is able.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Many, especially among runners. One runner steadfastly refuses to go on another run after a member of her crew was taken by demons; she is executed when she won't relent. Liyah's own cousin is so traumatized by running she's constantly drunk or on some other intoxicant, and frequently spends her nights in lockup after being arrested for public intoxication. Even Liyah has some psychological scars, though she's usually better at coping with them.
• Shout-Out: The Takantan general insists her people are "born with bow in hand," which is a phrase used to describe Shemites in Conan the Barbarian.
• Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: Liyah pictures one, noting on the model of Ataegina in the Council chambers the location of Black Smoke Mountain, and the two Holds that fell before she was born are closest to it. Keflan is the next closest and the next to fall, Dakatera is a bit farther, and Lemeth is farther than Dakatera. She sees the demons spreading out from Black Smoke Mountain, seeking, finding, and conquering Holds in an expanding pattern, and is certain it's only a matter of time before they come to Lemeth. She's right.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: The Takantan General puts a bit too much faith in her warriors' archery skills. Admittedly, they're very impressive: every warrior can loose twelve shafts a minute. But she doesn't appreciate how fast the demons are, and refuses to set up a circular phalanx as Liyah instructs, since that would prevent many of her soldiers from firing their arrows. The phalanx is rapidly outflanked by the demons, and once that happens, it breaks almost immediately.
• The Strategist: Liyah has a gift for strategy and tactics, as well as leadership, skills she's been refining under the secret tutelage of former General Sinesh Bishor. She's still a bit unpolished and lacking in confidence, but like Ripley, rises to the occasion as the story progresses.
• The Team: Ahiliyah's runner crew. Ahiliyah is the crew leader, the most experienced runner on the team and one of the most experienced in all of Lemeth Hold. At the start of the story she's on her fifth run. Brandun is huge at fifteen years old and still growing. The warriors can't wait to snap him up, and he's eagerly training for the day he gets to join them. Creen is a certifiable genius who knows and understands things no one else does.
• Vote Early, Vote Often: It is speculated fairly early on that Margrave Aulus Darby rigs the elections so that he always wins, and his father did the same. It's never confirmed either way, but considering what we ultimately learn of the man's character, the implication is heavy that Lemeth Hold has probably never had a truly fair election.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Holds are allies and trading partners, but each is its own city-state with its own culture, religion, and government. As a result, politics, intrigue, and greed dominate Hold relations, with everyone trying to get the best for themselves and short shrift everyone else. Lemeth and Dakatera may even be on the verge of war. In the epilogue, after the death of the Demon Mother, the Holds have unified into the nation of Ataegina, all working together to keep their island safe and secure.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: The imbid flowers are so common in Lemeth Hold that runners are showered with them when they return, the petals trampled underfoot and eventually swept away. In the other Holds, where imbid flowers don't grow, they're extremely valuable and Lemeth's chief export.
• Zerg Rush: How the demons attack, and pointed out by Sinesh as their main strength, instead of the weakness the trope normally implies. With the essentially Spartan weapons and tactics the Holds have available, the Xenomorphs simply cannot be fought conventionally. You can't break their formation because they have no formation. You can't outmaneuver them because they don't use maneuvers, and they're far faster than humans. You can't counter their strategy because they don't have a strategy. You can't flank them because they don't have flanks. In the open field, they'll surround any formation, attacking from all sides, and leap into the midst of it to sow chaos. In a bottleneck, say a mountain pass, they'll climb the rock walls and attack from above. You can't use terrain against them, because they can make almost any terrain work for them.

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