Chapter Text
The dark depths of space.
Asteroids flew past in the sea of stars, but otherwise there was nothing else to be seen in the area. It was one of the darkest places in the universe, and a large ship was flying through it. A transporter from Megalopolis, which had picked up a load in Pokitaru and the crew were now on their way home again. There was food, salt water and much more inside, used for trade in the city. The crew was a group of only fifteen aliens, some of them robots, and all of them were the suppliers in the control center. “Can't wait to finally get home,” one of the aliens said, a green man bored at the controls, while the others also agreed to snort.
“Tell me about it, Captain. When I get home, I'm going to have a proper meal,” A colleague pressed a few buttons and the flight continued quietly. They had already been traveling for several weeks and it was finally time to return to Megalopolis and their families and friends. The aliens continued to operate the ship before something suddenly beeped loudly.
“Captain, take a look at this!”
“What's going on,” the crew looked at the screen, which lit up wildly, ”It's...a distress signal?”
“Look around you! There's no planet in the area.” The aliens looked through the hatches and saw only dark space, only the pilot at the screen was sure, ”Yes, look! There is a small planet in the area. Only a few miles away and the signal is stronger than ever.”
“Then there's no time to lose,” the crew was already getting ready to follow up the signal, ”Someone there could have crashed hard, or worse!” The large ship flew off faster. After only a few moments, it turned out that the pilot was right. A brown planet with a few green areas was floating alone through space, where one sun was still visible. “Does anyone know the name of the planet,” no answer, so the crew decided to land after all. If anyone was really in danger, they had to hurry immediately.
They had no idea what was coming.
The freighter landed on the first available landing site. The planet was full of forests and jungle, with only a few mountains to be seen. The temperature was also hot, resulting in a humid atmosphere. The crew disembarked all together with nothing but their suits and some batons as weapons. They were only a supply ship after all, not soldiers. The captain continued to follow the distress signal with a small device that seemed to be nearby, somewhere behind the trees.
“Stay together,” the green man said as he strode through the bushes. The crew followed, and so the fifteen members strode through the forest. It was dense, full of unfamiliar plants and strange tracks on the ground, which caught the co-pilot's attention, “What the hell ran through here?”
“Whatever it was, I don't want to run into that thing,” said one of them before the path continued. A clearing was already visible, which the crew reached and escaped through the last bushes. There they found a large station. It was not similar to any of their stations and even seemed very primitive compared to Megalopolis, but the building was not from any known species in their ranks.
“This is getting really creepy, guys,” one fongoid held his stick tighter to himself, but the rest of his crew was more relaxed, “It's just a jungle. And that's where the signal must be coming from, isn't it Captain?”
“...Yes, that's where it's at its strongest,” the green man led the troops to the base, which was uninhabited. “It's completely deserted here,” the aliens arrived at the entrance. No reception or anything similar awaited the crew from Megapolis and so they walked in slightly nervously. Only one of the crew was the last to notice something on the door that the others hadn't seen.
There were scratch marks all over the door.
“Uh, guys...” his voice wouldn't find an answer, though. The inside of the base was much larger than he had thought. A staircase led down, revealing a larger area. “You guys look around upstairs, and the rest of you come down with me,” the co-pilot strode down, followed by some of the crew. The captain stayed upstairs, where apparently the main control center of the base was. There were screens, labs and other rooms everywhere. Rooms were also locked, as if no one wanted them to see what was hiding in there. The aliens searched everything, but only found old cells and what appeared to be tokens from a company or something like that. “Read what it says,” two Rilga residents leafed through a folder full of notes and the second read from the wall where a large logo was painted on what looked like a W.
“Weyland Yutani: Building better Worlds.”
“Guys, look at this,” the captain whistled to the two of them, as well as the Fongoid. They were standing in front of a large window that looked like a test room or something. There were some canisters placed on the chest. The people on the boards were all long dead, but the way they died completely shocked the crew.
“It looks...like something crushed its way out of them,” disgusted, the captain tried to open the door, but to no avail. “Captain...where's the signal? We have to get out of here quickly,” the fongoid was now frightened by the sight of the corpses, their chests burst open from the inside. “Here in this room! We'll look for it and contact the others immediately,” The squad continued to search the building to find the source of the signal.
In the meantime, the co-pilot and her squad had reached the underground. It was only dimly lit, so the aliens had to activate their flashlights, “Okay...look for signs of life!” The female Kerwan led the troop through the corridor. They noticed that the floor felt stranger after every step and the smell also changed. “I'm going to puke,” one of them admitted as he stopped briefly to catch his breath. His gaze, however, met a new corridor that ended in a dead end. There was something strange in the middle of it, and curiosity made him part ways with his crew.
“Stay together, remember,” the co-pilot lit her lamp, only to see the horror. Most of the walls and floor were covered in a strange mass that was swelling blackish and even looked as if it was alive. “By the Zonis,” the crew had to restrain themselves from shouting, but it got worse. In some places there were corpses of an ancient species that the aliens would not have expected. “Are these humans? I thought they were extinct,” said one of them, frightened, to which the co-pilot merely stepped backwards, ”These are! We have to get out of here quickly!”
“Hey, isn't there someone missing,” a blue alien remarked, which immediately put the lady on alert.
She didn't notice that something was moving in the fabric.
The separated man was still staring at the strange object. It looked like an egg, only greenish and made of strange flesh that had apparently not yet opened. Instead of fear, the delivery man felt only curiosity, and also an idea in his head, “I wonder if this would bring in a lot of money?”
“HEY, what are you doing? We have to get out of here,” the co-pilot and the rest of the crew reached the missing man, who turned away from the egg and left it standing. “You guys need to watch this! This could bring in a lot more bolts than all the food we've loaded,” he wanted to show the object and turned back to the egg. But to his surprise, it had opened. His curiosity got the better of him again, despite the shouts of his friends, when something moved. Was it the baby nesting inside or a treasure?
Then the creature jumped onto his face and wrapped its tail around his neck.
“WHAT THE...” the crew cried out in shock as the muffled scream of their comrade could be heard briefly and then he lay completely still. One of them then bumped into something large that had risen up behind him. Strange liquid dripped onto the alien's bald head as he turned around, trembling, and saw a strange, terrifying creature in black. It had no eyes, but it's teeth were wide open and it let out a loud hiss, which drew the attention of the other crew members.
Then a smaller mouth shot out of the monster. It pierced the other alien's head, whose blood spread to his colleagues, who then screamed in panic and ran past the monster. But it was not alone. “WHAT IS THIS THING,” They ran away from the creature, but one of them was grabbed by two black hands. More of the monsters hid in the dark and pulled the trapped supplier towards them, who tried to fight back screaming. Filled with fear, the co-pilot and her crew ran towards the stairs, but the creatures behind them had given chase. “THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER! HELP ME...” the next one was grabbed.
The monster had him by the legs and tore him to pieces. Only the woman and one other were left when they saw the light, where the captain and the rest of the crew were already waiting. They had heard the screams and were immediately on their way to the stairs, which had now been cleared. The co-pilot ran out first, “MONSTER! There are monsters,” The last survivor appeared next to her and breathed a sigh of relief.
Then a spike poked through his back.
“NO,” the spike was part of the tails the creatures carried and the monster flung the dead one away. Behind them, loud bangs could suddenly be heard against the air vents. More of the monsters ran out and grabbed the large fongoid first, who begged for help, screaming, “NO, HEL....AARGH...” Several of the creatures tore the large one to pieces before the captain, co-pilot and Rilga's two men retreated.
The two underclassmen pilots were cut off, however, and the eyeless, long bent-headed monsters snatched up the screaming victims. The captain and his right hand ran back out through the jungle, but the screeching of the creatures could still be heard and one was getting closer. “What do we do now,” the two aliens continued to run through the bushes before the captain fell over. He didn't have time to get up because one of the black creatures jumped onto him from above and dug its claws into his flesh. The co-pilot tried to rush to his aid, but he only shouted at her, “RUN! CONTACT...THE GALACTIC RANGERS!”
So he was pulled into the bush by the creature and a splash of blood was the last thing to be seen. Alone, the co-pilot arrived at the ship crying and ran to the control center. The captain's seat had the radio, which she immediately activated for the video call. Sobbing, she spoke into the screen: “If...anyone hears this...I'm the last...”
She didn't get any further. A large drop of drool landed on her hand.
Shakily, she stared upwards before a fear-filled scream escaped her throat. One of the monsters had crept into the ship and was snarling at its victim. The claws shot out and clutched at the woman's face, who was pulled upwards, screaming. Only her feet, trembling wildly, were captured on the screen before blood shot down and then her body hung motionless. With full force, the sinister creature threw the corpse down, which slammed against the screen and the creature made its way back home to its nest.
But the force of the landing corpse had sent the message.
“And that is the end of the message,” just one day later, the distress call had been sent by the grocers. At the Galactic Rangers headquarters, a robot closed the horror video he had shown Captain Qwark. You could see small beads of sweat on the hero's mask before he cleared his throat, “Um...well...it wasn't that scary...”
“Thanks to my system, I was able to scan fragments of the creature and make a holo-image of it,” the robot activated its system and the image appeared in all its glory.
Everything was there. The long head pulled back, the teeth, the long tail with the pointed spike and the body tissue that looked like an exoskeleton directed from the outside. “Even if it doesn't have eyes... I can somehow feel it staring at me,” said the captain in green, before the robot in front of him deactivated the hologram, ”Captain, what do we do now? What if it's a species that can spread like parasites? They could hijack another ship and then the galaxy would be at risk!” Qwark scratched his large chin in thought, even though thinking is one of the activities he does least. It came as a bolt of lightning to the big man as he pointed his finger upwards laughing!
“IT'S TIME FOR THE Q-FORCE!”
“Again? That... isn't a bad idea,” the robot followed the man in green, who picked up the phone, ”I'll round up the old gang and together we'll fight evil!” The bot in front of him also had an idea. It could help bring even more firepower and he couldn't keep that a secret, “I know a special unit that is suitable for such parasite cases! They would certainly help too.”
“Great! You contact them and I'll take care of the Q-Force,” Qwark walked out of the office towards the exit to his ship, ”However, Ratchet is not on the planet at the moment. Well, a surprise visit can't hurt.”
“Where is the lombax?” the robot asked before the hatch of Qwark's ship closed and he had to smile, ”Hehe... he's on vacation.”