I JUST... REALLY LOVE XENOMORPHS

[dousing]

IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU MEME Sure we've got your fun interplanetary romps, your space spaghetti westerns, your xenoromance. This is none of those things. This is you getting lost in the depths of space. This is you being stuck in a silent hulking dead ship with no idea where to turn. This is you hiding in the dark and hoping the creature doesn't see you. This is you, surviving some kind of horrors. Or not. Do your best.

THREAT • YOU HAVE MY SYMPATHIES Xenomorphs, facehuggers, necromorphs, predators, whatever: the threat you're up against is some kind of being you've never seen before. Perhaps they're engineered somehow, perhaps they've evolved this way. Either way, I hope you can figure out how to kill them before they kill you. • I'M AFRAID I CAN'T DO THAT Why the hell did we think building un-tethered AI was a good idea? Your threat is an android, or a ship's AI, or I don't know, a sentient race of evil ships that want to destroy all life and suck it into tubes to make a weird baby shaped ship. WHATEVER. The point is, technology is going against you. Can you beat out something with that much processing power? Maybe having bigger firepower will help. • I LOVE... ROCKS Your threat is environmental. An exploding sun, an alien planet with an inhospitable atmosphere, your ship's life support systems have failed, your shuttle has gone down in flames. Can you cobble together some way to fix the problem before you all die? • THIS IS NOT A RESCUE SHIP Screw the other problems, what you're up against are HUMANS. Or, you know, whatever species/race matches yours. We're not xeno-racist here. Anyway, you're being targeted by your own. Maybe you're in the way of a scientific development, or you've become expendable, or they want to take over your ship, or they're just plain evil. • ABOUT 15 SECONDS Holy shit. Holy... shit. You were outside your ship making repairs and you got knocked off track. Maybe your fancy magnetic boots failed. Maybe some debris from your ship took you down with it. Either way, your space walk has become a space "holy shit help I'm going to get spaced, someone get me back on board." Try not to panic. • WE'RE THE ENEMIES You've been out in space too long. Everything is going strange and everything is a threat. Is your space sickness psychological or physiological? Is it spreading? Is there a cure? LOCATIONS • PLANETSIDE Crash landed. In an outpost. Building a new life. You're on a planet not your own and things are going horribly wrong. What can you do when you have no way home? • STATION SWEET STATION Whether you're out in your ship or in a streamlined space station, things are rotten in Denmark. You'd better fix that circuitry before you all die. Just a suggestion. • THE GAPING MAW There's nothing around you and all you can hear is your breathing. Are you calm? Panicked? What's it like floating in the vast expanse of space? • IT'S INEVITABLE You're lost in your own head. You can be anywhere, but maybe you're the threat because you've short-circuited from being in space too long. The mind can only take so much. Try to be gentle. Try to breathe. No one's after you, it's all in your head. As always, these are just suggestions. Also, not all examples are strictly hard sci-fi but we do what we want in these parts. Make up anything you want, as long as you're having fun!

Comments

"Marie" | OC | OTA

[onewithwater]

Kairi | Kingdom Hearts (Kairi the hero AU) | OTA

[keyblade_heroine]

(OoC: Let's see if I can actually do tags here!)

Djem Ahmad | OC

[fresh_to_deaf]

[well this sounds horrifying.]

peter quill | mcu | ota

[nostalgiabomb]

treize khushrenada | gundam wing

[draizeng]

sympathies → planetside

[nuozha]

Wufei has been Earthbound for eight weeks now. The crash happened six days ago. The first death was four days ago. The latest death was two hours ago.

It feels like a countdown.

The ship (transport carrier, light load, likely only carrying people looking for people like them) had only had one living person in it when it had crashed, a woman babbling incomprehensibly, wounded and so panicked that it took three people to sedate her. There weren't enough bodies to compensate for a full crew and scorch marks on the walls told them... what? There was some kind of viscous residue too, corroded holes in metal that were even more questionable.

They could never get a clear answer to that question. The woman that had stumbled into their tiny world had finally become lucid for a few moments two days later. Burn them, she'd rasped out and then died. Wufei had overseen the disposal of the ship himself. They take nothing from it, nothing that could have been potentially useful. It's not worth the risk. The entire thing is immolated, ripped to pieces, melted down, by Shenlong. By the time he's satisfied there's almost nothing left at all.

They're still wary, of course. What killed the entire crew isn't clear and there had been nothing on the ship to attest to what it was.

Well, they'd found out, hadn't they?

It's almost impossible to tell how many there really are now, hulking shining black creatures and their offspring. It'd started with one but they hadn't been able to kill it (even with fire - it had been wounded but alive) and now it's reproduced. They aren't even sure if sequestering the civilians will help but they're as safe as they can be, what little fighting force they have doing their best.

(The first man to find out that their blood is acid had gotten away lucky and is still recuperating.)

Right now, Wufei is alone. Pulse weapons have worked the best so far but it's not like those are in abundant supply and it also isn't like Shenlong can fit into such close quarters. His head is bleeding, he'd had to shove his knee back into its socket about an hour ago, and he's not sure what direction he should be worried about. The corridor he's in is a tight fit but the creatures can fit into even tighter ones, somehow.

Wufei moves slow, careful, back pressed to the wall. He hasn't seen a human in forty-five minutes.

peter quill ★ marvel comics ★ ota

[starbuckslord]

Keith | Voltron: Legendary Defender

[tempredmental]

ota, s2 compliant

Duo Maxwell | Gundam Wing

[divine_braid]

ota

Michael Corvin | Underworld | ota

[lycanhybrid]

[Space vampire/werewolf, anyone?]

Scarecrow | Batman Arkham Knight | ota

[doctor_terror]

The Rat King | TMNT (2012)

[rateyes]

leto hawkins ▎original character ▎ota

[stardog]

[draizeng]

Nothing like a sudden invasion of hostile, nearly impossible to kill, supergenius alien monsters to put a crimp on your global (un)domination plans. Dangit.

The unnerving glow of emergency lights in the corridor Wufei's creeping through suddenly vanishes. Surely unnerving is better than total darkness, but for nearly ten seconds, total darkness is all he gets. And then with an abrupt whipcrack hum of power, the real lights come back on, the nearby duct rattles with cool air being pushed through, the lock mechanisms on every door beep as they reset and come online.

At the end of the hall, an intercom unit dully calls out a conduct code - an Alliance military one, specifically, an OZ one. Moments later, Wufei's communicator pings.

"I take it that's you in there, Zero-Five," says a familiar voice, politely not using Wufei's real name. The line is secure on Treize's end, but he has no idea whether the pilot is alone, or if any of his comrades listen in. It wouldn't do for them to know he's on closer speaking terms with the colonel than he already appears to be, probably.

Nemesis | Nemesis the Warlock

[archdeviant]

[ Depending on what game he's playing, he's happy to be either a hero or the monster itself- quite possibly a bit of both by setting up a horrible scenario just to be the one to fix it. ]

[nuozha]

The sudden pitch-black makes Wufei still, eyes remaining wide open as he holds his breath, listening. He's still pressed flush to the wall but when the normal lights come back on he exhales, head pressing back for a split-second in silent relief that it's not something worse. It's easier to move in the light and he starts down the corridor again.

When Treize's voice comes through his mouth twists slightly but he answers promptly, eyes sweeping as he speaks so he's not distracted while he's making noise. "Affirmative," comes at a low murmur but will still be audible on the Colonel's end. It's not subdued - it's tactical. They hear everything. He's about to say something else when a scrabbling clatter of metal comes from a room slightly down the hall and to the left. It's too big to be human. He holds his breath again.

Nothing.

He doesn't believe there's nothing. "How many," he mutters at length when he's not immediately accosted by one of the creatures slamming through a door at him, "can you tell me how many are around me?" He knows Treize would have told him if there had been any visible on any sensors when he'd first contacted, but they move so damn fast.

ripley! from alien3!

[muthurfucker]

[ SHE'S PRETTY MUCH LIVED THROUGH ALL OF THE ABOVE HASN'T SHE. (or not.) alien/s version are also available as slightly less depressing options. ]

[draizeng]

Wufei's quiet response informs him of several things, and so instead of responding verbally, Treize takes a moment to force compatibility into their exchange frequency and send him an executable file. Once opened it'll install and act as a radar for these particular creatures-- as best as OZ has been able to throw together in this short amount of time, anyway.

I can get you something better but it'll take a minute.

He doesn't dare push further sound through, not wanting to put Wufei - or anyone else still alive - in more danger.

[nuozha]

Wufei is completely still and silent in the gap, fully aware of every bit of his surroundings just in case. He's impatient and only thinks the silence is something that means he'll have to be on his own for a split-second before the real answer comes to him. Once the radar fully loads he's glad it too is silent and glances down at it. Two. One where he heard the noise and one further down in a different room. Manageable.

... Well, better than more of them. He knows once he makes enough noise taking on the first one that the second will come running and he'll be overrun.

This will do for now. Put living quarters X-046 on full lockdown first.

It won't last, but it'll slow it down if it can't even move through ducts. This will do for now is as good as a thank you from anyone else. He moves down the way slowly, waiting for the confirmation from both the door itself and from Treize that he'll only be taking on one for at least a few moments before he does anything else.

josh lyman | the west wing | ota

[hardballsy]

Samus Aran | Metroid

[raisedbybirds]

[well I can't not]

gamora | guardians of the galaxy

[godslay]

[draizeng]

It only takes him a few seconds to confirm Wufei isn't doing something like requesting he be sealed in with the monsters in some self-sacrificial move (he knows you bloody pilots), and then the designated area is put on lock down. Blast doors lower and lock automatically, the noise from them unavoidable, but at least it comes from several points at once. Hopefully the echo will distort the sound-waves and not send one of those things careening towards Wufei.

Meanwhile: now that Treize knows where he is (certainly he didn't think that .exe file didn't have back doors), he can get moving. He pings a location to Wufei - a small civilian elevator on the other side of the building. And a question mark.

Can you get here?

Blackops are moving in, but it's slow-going and dangerous, and it doesn't make sense to double-up where one of the most effective soldiers in the solar system is already. OZ's forces will head in the opposite direction - except for Treize. He's invested too much in Wufei to risk his death when he could have been of aid. It'll be easier to make sure he gets out alive, and a more effective learning experience against this new foe, if he meets him in person.

[nuozha]

It's prudent to check whether he is or not, but Wufei isn't in that place (yet), no. The last monster, maybe. Not when they have no idea how many are left. The sound makes him tense, waiting. The locked-in creature is hissing mad and he knows it's going to get out sooner or later. The other one is moving. Not directly for him, but it's not going to give him the benefit of surprise anymore. (And yes, he'd known it would have back doors, but he's a little too busy at the moment to have screwed around with it.)

He hesitates, looking at the location, then the moving being, then his possible routes. Damn.

Oh well. Yes.

Rather than linger to try and fight on his own (though he wants to), Wufei crouches silent as a mouse and works at the cover of an air duct. It's insane and stupid but he's going to be in the same corridor with something gunning to kill him within seconds. So: into the ducts he goes, pulling the cover shut again behind him.

Then he waits. He watches out silently as there's a quiet clatter of alighting on the floor. He hates that they can be silent too, and he holds his breath as it passes him by, listening, looking. Only when its whip-crack sharp tail disappears around a corner does he move, taking turns carefully crawling through and keeping the layout in his mind. Soon enough he has to exit again; he's right near the elevator and it's a moment's work to see him shimmying out of the opening.

Lo, one Gundam pilot has arrived.

allison argent | teen wolf

[industria]