I watched in absolute terror as the Pirate’s ship hovered above the ground, ominously watching us. It must’ve been at the very least, a football field long. At first, I couldn’t actually believe my eyes. I glanced down at the ground and chuckled, thinking that maybe I was still dreaming, before reaching over and pinching my left arm, to only find that I wasn’t dreaming, and the ship really was waiting up there for us. I screamed, practically rotated like a 3D model and hauled ass back into the ship, storming down the halls to the bridge. Inside was Squiggles, tending to the central console.
“Hey! Squiggles!”
He turned, and glanced at me. My translator interpreted his facial expression as absolute anger. That’s a given, he hates his nickname.
“My name is Li’Vhen, and you WILL–“
I cut him off by shushing him, before waltzing over to the console and plucking his hand away from it so I had his full attention.
“The Pirates are here and we need to try and talk them out of what they’re doing.”
Squiggles reached to the side of the console and picked up his kinetic pulse pistol. I grabbed his arm, as lightly as I could, and pushed it away.
“No, no, TALK to them. Can you repair the communication console?” Squiggles nodded and headed over to the other console, preparing to give it the good ol’ spitshine. I turned and headed to the Medical Bay, peering inside and glancing at the two inside. Elisa was sitting on her bed, and Claus was sleeping. “Elisa, Claus, stay quiet in here.”
“Wait, wh-” before Elisa could say much I charged back down to the bridge. Inside, Squiggles was standing next to an active comms console. I reached it, and then glanced at it, then stepping back a little. “Squiggles, I don’t know how to work any alien technology, can you open up the communication channel with them? Just… don’t say anything, I don’t want them to know you’re here.”
“…okay, I hope you know what you’re doing, Jack…” He then began to tap the console screen, and within a few moments, a connection had been established with the bridge of their ship. A voice rang out in anger over the voice channel, and I could only assume it was an alien. Who else had such a weird accent? Not anybody from Earth.
“The Deathworlder,” it said, almost like a whisper. “Look who opened a communications channel? Congratulations, you’re below the galactic standard of intelligence.” Well, good news, this wasn’t the guy I possessed last night. I leaned over the console and began to speak. No need to be a dick, though. I began to shiver a little.
“Uhm…. You know, you could just send down one of those little transport ships… to take me.” I tugged at my shirt collar. This is nerve wracking, I almost didn’t want to even tell them what was going on and just let us all get incinerated. “That way, you don’t have to waste any ammo… I… Surrender…” Squiggles tugged at my shirt collar, looking angry.
“Very well. The transporter will be there soon.” Squiggles shut down the comms channel, turned to me, and prepared to speak. I’ve never seen him so mad.
“You–you IDIOT! YOU… SURRENDERED? A deathworlder! Surrendering to some filthy pirates! I can’t believe that!” I decided to reassure him, knowing he might do something rash while I was… Momentarily gone.
“No, look, I have a plan. Just don’t do anything.” Squiggles just stared at me, and we had a moment of angry glares, before I turned and headed down the hall, slowly. Knowing they would recognize it as a weapon, I left my shotgun next to the door to the med bay. I stepped outside, watching a small transportation unit detach from the ship and begin heading over to me. This is what it’s come to. Likely, my final moments. Light years away from home, no more family, just a couple of jackasses sitting in a ruined space ship on a planet deadlier than my own.
The transport landed, and the door opened. Two aliens, one looked like the giraffe guy from before, and the other resembled an ape with… what, it kinda looked like moss growing on it. Not anything I had ever seen, that was for sure. They gestured to me, and I climbed onto the ramp, heading into the transport. Within a moment, it took off. The two in the transport gave each other glances. Now, time for the plan. Watching the two carefully, I waited for one of them, notably the ape, to turn their back, before grabbing the gun of the giraffe creature facing me and ripping it from its hands. It had the grip of…. Well, damn near a two year old. I stumbled back and fired the pulse rifle into its chest, causing to shake with each blow, flesh and bone flying through the air. The other one had pretty delayed reactions, even for a space ape. I threw the gun at it’s head and it stumbled back, crying out in pain as it’s skull cracked wide open. I leapt onto the ape creature, grabbed the sides of it’s head, and pulled, tear the thing clean off, covering me in a light liquid that I could only assume was blood. I nearly puked.
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The transport landed in the docking bay, and hit the ground with a thud. The door opened and I glanced out. It was so alien, so terrifyingly foreign. As expected, there was a single giraffe creature standing by the door to the hall with a weapon I remember all to well from my first encounter with the pirates. An anti tank rifle. Since it was only one, I bet I could do it. I stormed out of the transport, blood all over me. The giraffe let out a scream and opened fire, but I was zig zagging around toward it. It had such slow reactions, it was like a child. I kicked it into the wall and heard a sickening crack as it slumped to the ground. I grabbed the anti tank rifle and prepared to move out.
Entering the hall, I saw several different aliens with pulse pistols just standing around with not much to do. I stepped, and the hall shook a little as they turned to look at me. They, of course, screamed and opened fire, but I readied the zig zag from before. Shots hit me in the gut, one on the cheek, but I kept going until I reached the six legged orange alien before me, ripping off one of it’s legs as if it were a stick lego. It cried out in pain and I whacked the leg against it’s head, sending it to the ground. The next one shot at my chest, and it hurt much like getting slapped. I stormed toward it and it’s friend next to it, swinging wide with the leg like it were a bat, knocking both to the floor, cracking their bones into shards. The leg itseld was basically just tenderized mush now, so I dropped it. One of the aliens ran off, and the other three aimed at me. Doing something I had only seen in a kung fu movie, I tried to kick high and wide, only knocking the gun from one of their hands and hitting the other’s arm, breaking it. The third one shot at my head, hitting the top and not doing much. I slammed my knee into the middle one, grabbed the left one’s gun, and shot the right one in the face, turning it into a broken-in mush. The middle one curled over, and the one on the left stared at me in terror.
Of course, I shot it in the face. With the gun, I headed down the hall, shooting aliens through open doorways. They fell apart like wet paper. Why? Why were aliens so substantially weaker than Humans? To the point where their idea of lethal is our idea of a 12 year old’s temper tantrum? It was unbelievable. I continued heading toward the bridge of the ship, and when I arrived and opened the door, I found myself in a bit of a bad situation. There was no shortage of giraffes on this ship. Four of them, with anti tank rifles, aiming right at me. They had more arms and legs though, so they were likely a different species. Also not to mention their ridiculous looking flat faces and huge eyes. “Well, uh, hello!” The four ushered their weapons at me.
“Your limbs capable of fine manipulation. Raise them.” Like an idiot, I stared at them, before dropping the gun. I had to think of a way to distract them….. Maybe… Okay, I had an idea. It was weird, but it might work. I turned so they could see my side, put my right foot just infront of my left, and… Well, I began to moonwalk. They looked so confused.
“How… How are you walking forwards-backwards?” I thought of a bullshit excuse as fast as I could.
“My species have such powerful minds that we can mentally control the time space continuum and manipulate it at will.” They gawked, but looked unsure, slowly lowering their weapons.
“That can’t be–” Before the guy on the right knew it, my fist cracked his skull open. I punched the other one in the chest and it stumbled, to where I ducked and stepped under it, before moving away as the third giraffe accidentally blew his friend into a mist. The third one then kicked, and holy shit was it a kick. I stumbled back, and it took aim at me, but I grabbed what appeared to be a data tablet off of a console and hurled at it it’s head. It cried out and looked away, giving me time to charge it, my elbow snapping it’s torso bones. The last one tried to fire but was too slow and ended up ripping the third giraffe into shreds. I slapped the rifle from it’s hands, and with my other hand, knocked it out with a single, smooth punch. I probably shattered it’s skull. Now that the bridge was unguarded, I turned to find a door labelled “Captain’s Quarters”. Or at least, my translator interpreted it that way. I opened the door, and there he was, the alien I possessed the other night. Orange, rough skin, six legs, this was the guy.
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The Deathworlder opened the door to my office and stood there in front of me with an odd expression on it’s face and blood all over it. As soon as the door opened, I reached under my desk and pushed a button. Quickly, a polymer sheet folded out from the ground, seperating me and the Deathworlder with an invisible wall. I stood up, glanced at the Deathworlder, and it knew that it had failed it’s mission in killing me just then and there. “A polymer sheet,” I inquired. “Not even our strongest men on deck could take this thing down.” It just stared at me. I knew it was too stupid to understand what I was saying.
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Is this thing fucking serious? A polymer sheet?
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Then, like a bolt of lightening, it’s right arm curled back and it slammed it’s closed fist into the sheet. Something I had never seen happen before… Happened. The sheet cracked. Then, it punched again. Thunk. I stumbled back against my desk, and watched in terror as it curled back it’s right arm one more time and slammed against the sheet, turning it to shards of polymer at my feet. It’s hand was bleeding, but it didn’t even seem to notice as it began to approach, with a terrible look on it’s face. I guess this was it. The end of my life. Hehknahn, sorry for failing.
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It had been nearly an hour since Jack came in and told me to wait with the Racoon. What the hell was going on? I got up, and headed to the door, only to have it open right in front of me. It was the little alien from before, who had introduced itself during the night as Li’Vhen. Li’Vhen stared at me, wide eyed, then headed over to Claus’s bed.
“We’re leaving. Human,” he said, turning to look at me. “If this Gaoian attacks, kill it.” I nodded and gulped, as he pressed a button on the side of the bed and the force field dissapated. Claus climbed out of bed, scoffed, and headed to the door. Li’Vhen followed suit, and I only found it reasonable to come with. We went down the halls, then outside, to see a nice ship that I assumed was a cruiser, and a mothership sitting below the clouds, unmoving. We entered, got situated, and prepared for a long flight.
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[Several Hours Later]
We were orbiting a planet much smaller than Earth. It looked like it was constantly ravaged by a sandstorm, except for one area that looked about the size of Mexico on Earth (proportionate to this alien planet.) Squiggles approached my side, and glanced out the window at the small planet we were orbiting. He then looked at me, and I looked down at him, smiling. “That, is Eue.”
“Eee-you? Wait, what?” I was pretty confused. Was that the name of the planet?
“The planet. Eue. That area that isn’t dangerous is a city known as Kyar’eil. This place used to be a Dominion colony. It’s so far away from the rest of the Dominion because it was, then, a major manufacturing planet. Bustling, with a lot of people immigrating to live in a higher tier of the economic ladder. It was so far away so the Celzi couldn’t find it, because the Dominion and the Celzi have been locked in a war for some time now. Sadly, the Hunters attacked, and the only way to save Eue was to orbitally bombard it. The Hunters gave up and left, and the Dominion classified Eue as a deathworld, forgetting it entirely. Unbeknown to both of them, Kyar’eil survived, and today, it’s an independent country. Sadly, it’s fallen pretty far. Crime is insanely high, and there’s people living in fear down there. Sadly, most families down there can’t afford to move away, and over time, the population has grown astronomically higher. Most people have poor education, and nearly everyone is poor except government officials.”
“So, what classification is Eue?”
Squiggles chuckled, or, my translator said that’s the equivalent.
“That’s disputed, but, the best way to describe it is mixed. Kyar’eil is safe, so, about a Class 7, but the immediate surrounding area is about a Class 10, only survivable with breathing gear. That place is called the Slums, although, nobody lives there. The rest of the planet is somewhere in the Class 13 range. Lava is everywhere, the air is so toxic that it could kill you in moments, even with breathing gear. They just call that the ‘Outside’. Don’t go there. I’ve never visited Eue much, only as a pit stop.”
I paused. Welp, Eue, you’re my new home.