by KevinOC » October 29th, 2011, 7:36 pm
I was a member of MI-245, a Marine squadron specially chosen for the development of deep space warfare in the year 2209. By that point, humans have established wormhole travel, though our neighbors a few billion miles in any direction aren't too pleased. So obviously, humans have more to fight than themselves. On one quiet evening, I found myself reading in my bunk as the ship prepared to travel to the Betelgeuse system. My roommate Thomas came in and told me that we had to go to survival training. In the case that we should ever find ourselves abandoned on a strange planet, we were to know how to continue living as long as we could. It seemed unnecessary at the time, but it ended up saving my arse later on. We learned how to build a basic shelter out of available supplies, if we needed a place to stay a while. Shortly after training, I fell asleep in my bunk.
The next morning, I woke to find out we had successfully crossed into the Betelgeuse system. We had been attacked by a small smuggler barge, but they fled rather quickly. It turned out that the captain of the ship felt unnaturally ill, so we had to stop by the artificial planet HK 1029, also known as Ticar. We were well on our way, when the ship suddenly stopped in place. The intercom briefly came on, but all that was heard was a few bloodcurdling screams. All of a sudden, the emergency alarms began to blare. I rushed out into the corridor, and ran along with my fellow Marines towards the escape pods. Unfortunately, many of the pods had been released for unknown reasons, and we had to see how many people could fit in the remaining ones. I was left stranded with about ten others (including Thomas), and we awaited help.
Just then, the door into the escape pod room flung open. And there stood the captain and his top lieutenant. But they weren't the same. Their limbs were horribly elongated, and the skin was ripped at numerous spots as a result. Their hands had turned into long, sharp claws. Their legs twisted like a crippled dinosaur's. Their jaws were unhinged, and their eyes seemed milky and lost. And overall, their skin looked deathly grey. The captain lunged for one of the Marines and thrust a claw through his chest. We watched in horror as he screamed, and he slowly morphed into the same shape as the other two. Immediately, the rest of us whipped out our laser pistols and started shooting the cursed beings. But they kept on resisting, and more of us were infected until Thomas and I were left against a whole crowd of bloodthirsty zombies. They all screamed in unison... oh God, the screaming. I can still hear it in my mind today. High pitched, shrill, and it oozed of hatred. Just my luck, though, because one last escape pod arrived just then at the end of the corridor! Thomas and I ran back as quickly as we could go, shooting at the creatures as we went. But the lieutenant grabbed onto his leg, and my friend tripped. I tried shooting at his captor, but it was of no use. The single most horrifying moment of my life was seeing my best friend on the entire ship have his limbs contort as he began screaming that awful scream. I rushed into the escape pod, mashed the launch button, and was launched into deep space. Tear gas flooded the compartment as I fell to sleep.
I don't know what could have happened out in the vacuum, but I woke up on a short beach. Off in the distance, I could see mountains that scraped against the sky. I looked down and noticed my only clothing was what I wore under my space suit: a teal shirt, purple pants, and grey shoes. The escape pod was nowhere to be seen. I trudged onto land, wanting to wipe my mind of all the horrors I witnessed on that ship. But there was no time for that; I had to survive. I immediately began punching a tree with my bare fists so I could harvest the wood. If there was anything I learned from my training, it was to mine and craft.
