bakerstreet | TIME FOR XENOMORPHS

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TIME FOR XENOMORPHS

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!

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(( I mean. Basically any old Tuesday so. Bring it. ))

[First contact?]

(OoC: WHY YES I’M MEAN)

[Spoilers possible]

[M/M for shipping]

( ooc: a prelude to "you have my sympathies" and "we're the enemies" and "it's inevitable." so, like, hell. pretty much. but also "haha deadspace ig." i swear this is building up to some Real Shit. )

[ They needed that vacation. The Guardians needed to step away from the chaos of their work, from the close calls and nasty run-ins with all the assholes the galaxy had to offer – and Peter and Gamora needed a break from the other idiots on their team. But after weeks of downtime (the most they’ve had that didn’t result from injury or repairs), Gamora is ready to return. She misses the others – even if someone would have to pry multiple teeth out of her mouth just to get her to admit it – and she misses working. With the life she’s led, she can only sit still for so long before she needs to sink her teeth into something that makes her feel useful.

For the first couple weeks back, they roll with the easy jobs. Bounties, glorified errands, maybe a shakedown or two for the right reasons – enough to pad their pockets after all their downtime. But after a less-than-cordial run-in with the Sovereign leaves the Milano missing half a wing, the Guardians realize they’re going to need a little extra to cover unforeseen expenses.

(”It’s been like a frickin’ year,” Rocket griped as they landed the smoldering remains of the ship on the Quadrant’s docking bay. ”They’re still this pissed about some stupid batteries?”)

And that’s when the Nova Corps comes knocking.

Dey is the one on the line, which is about the only reason Gamora doesn’t decline on principle. ”I just wanna start off: it’s nothing biochemical. Getting that out of the way,” he says, looking almost apologetic.

(That doesn’t melt much of the hostility in the Guardians’ posture as they all watch the screen.)

”But it’s still the Ascendancy. And as much as they’ve been screwing you guys over – if you’ll forgive the expression – I thought you might want a chance for a little payback.”

The Guardians are a lot of things – and vindictive can often be one of them.

The intel comes through about a drop set a few days out. Something old, something valuable – something the Ascendancy actually paid to have recovered – and from everything the Corps knows, whatever relic the Ascendancy plans to retrieve has a whole lot of meaning to them.

So wouldn’t it just be a hell of a thing if they never got their hands on it?

The rendezvous that the Ascendancy had lined up is arranged on a backwards little moon, and with the small contingency sent to pick up their relic, an ambush proves to be almost laughably easy. Admittedly, it’s also overly violent, and the Guardians probably could have spared a member or two of the landing party to squeeze a little information out, but none of them are feeling merciful after their last encounters.

Besides, Rocket argues, the retrieval shuttle has plenty of data he can mine and decrypt for all the information they could possibly want. It saves them time, and also gives them the satisfaction of a body count coming off of the moon.

Gamora doesn’t feel particularly concerned by the corpses they leave behind.

Returning to Xandar is going to take a day or so, thanks to the need to refuel and how far out the Ascendancy had positioned themselves in order to dodge the Corps. However, it gives Rocket time to sort through the data files they recovered, to see what they can find out about the Ascendancy, in the meanwhile.

Gamora feels— antsy in the wake of their brief encounter with the contingent of the Ascendancy, and even if it had only been half a dozen men, even if it had been next to nothing comparatively, she’s still preoccupied and distant when she and Peter are securing the relic after the others have left them in peace. The object itself is only about 26 inches tall, hefty but not obscenely so, and it’s— odd.

It’s just odd.

Gamora lifts it with ease, bringing it to the open transport crate. As she lowers it down, she glances up at Peter. ]

What is this supposed to be?

[ The thing is, as much as Peter liked the vacation, as much as he liked having the time alone with Gamora, life with the Ravagers had instilled in him an unhealthy need to keep moving, to keep working – an instinct beaten into him that tells him he needs to prove his worth and earn his keep. Their vacation drew to a close just as that itch started to creep beneath his skin, that need to do something.

(Maybe one day, he’ll outgrow that compulsion; maybe one day he’ll finally feel as though he’s done enough; but today is not that day.)

So back to the grind, back to shooting people and getting shot at.

Back to remembering that some people – the Kree Purists, a lot of drug lords, a lot of slavers, a lot of criminal masterminds, and who could possibly forget the Sovereign – actually want them dead. Which, you know. Rude. But unsurprising.

The Ascendancy may or may not be on that list; thus far, the Guardians haven’t done much but clean up their ugly, mutated, disease-ridden mess. But the Ascendancy wants everyone dead, in all fairness. So when the Guardians get the offer to fuck with their shit even a little, they agree out of hand.

Well, mostly. It’s Peter who hesitates, who’s still reluctant, even as everyone says yes.

After all, Peter has had some really fucking bad luck when it comes to stealing ancient, mysterious relics.

The ambush is easier than he expects. Harder too, in some minor ways, but the Ascendants go down, nevertheless. The relic gives him the creeps, and he’d rather give it a wide berth, but here they are, standing next to the damn thing, making sure it’s nice and snug in whatever crate they’re going to stuff it in.

The longer he looks at it, the more it makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, the more it makes his spine prickle. Or maybe he’s just reading too much into things? There’s always some horror story (or movie or TV special) where someone digs up some primordial artifact and unleashes a cavalcade of horrors, and those stories are coming to mind now.

He grimaces as Gamora sets the thing in the box. Like, with her bare hands? Like it’s nothing??? Peter had had to bite back the suggestion that she wrap her hands first, or at least throw her coat over the thing before she handled it, since he knew how ridiculous that would have sounded.

At her question, his nose wrinkles. ]

I dunno. Artistic rendition of a rabbit’s head, maybe.

Can we just get that thing boxed up? It’s giving me the heebie jeebies.

Edited 2019-07-09 01:23 (UTC)

[voicetesting, be gentle]

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amanda ripley. alien: isolation.

chang wufei. gundam wing.

The Doctor (10) | Doctor Who

cassandra ryder | mass effect

octavia blake | the 100 | ota

emori | the 100

john murphy | the 100 | ota

raven reyes | the 100 | ota

Keith | Voltron: Legendary Defender

Duo Maxwell | Gundam Wing

Chibiusa | Sailor Moon | OTA

Ahim de Famille | Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger | OTA

Asuna Yuuki | Sword Art Online | OTA

Quentin Beck (Mysterio) | MCU

Scarecrow | Batman Arkham Knight | ota

Michael Corvin | Underworld | OTA

Eddie Brock/Venom | Venom (2018) | OTA

Anders | Dragon Age | OTA

peter quill | mcu | ota

i had an idea for this i'm gomen

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