Tossing and turning uncontrollably above unreachable worlds, dead suns, invisible forms. In cold hands she grasped the only physical thing in existence, the precious disc. It was her comforter, her reason for living, nothing else was to her as the disc was. Everything she knew was given up to obtain it.  

Then one moment out from the canvas of starry lights came a tear in that black sheet, through which came the ballooned thief. Across the expanse it plunged from its hole and stole the disc from her weakened hands. She fought with the thing briefly, but the surprise of it caught her off guard, so lonely she was for another living thing.  

So quickly it was gone from her. The spinning aura of light swirled about and consumed the vile villain, plundered treasure in hand. Now she was truly alone, without her precious disc, without a home. Only the unblinking stars watched over her.

Xecia wrinkled her nose up at the sight of the little bag of flesh wobbling along the ground on what seemed to be fangs.  

"Go ahead, pick it up. It's quite safe," said a soothing voice from behind her.  

The librarian wasn't used to this sort of life. Everything was natural, but twisted. She knelt on the ground behind the thing, hoping it wouldn't turn around to look at her with those tiny sunken beady eyes. With great difficulty, she delicately reached out both hands, aiming to grasp the squishy pallid thing. Yet try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to touch it.  

"No, no," said Xecia, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Ya. It's just... " she stammered, unable to form the idea in her head.  

"You don't trust it, do you?" smiled the voice of Ya.  

She nodded, agreeing with this observation. "It has thorns. And it smells like it's dead. Oh dear.. I'm going to be sick," gulped Xecia, shifting her weight to stand.  

"No, you're not," said Ya firmly, yet quietly. With one fine finger she poked Xecia's stomach, and the nausea passed. "Now lift that little one and look at it."  

She almost wanted to cry. "Why do you make them like this?! I still don't get it. You could make them tougher, deadlier, able to defend themselves," Xecia said. "But don't make them like THIS!"  

Ya looked at her, a calm expression on her face. Sitting back down, the woman turned back to the little scrabbly thing. It hadn't gotten very far. One of its "legs" didn't seem to be working terribly well.  

Shaking, Xecia braced herself and with one quick motion, snatched the little horror up with both hands. Holding it a handspan from her face, she looked into its eyes, like little round worlds buried in a pit of goo. She screamed and dropped it in her lap. Panicking, she leapt to her feet, flailing her arms madly trying to get it off.  

"Ok, Miss Oblique, that's enough," hushed Ya to the frantic woman. She calmed and stood there, shaking, with tears in her eyes. They were squeezed tightly shut, cutting off any knowledge of where the little terror had gone.  

Then came the sound of a tiny gurgle, and the four talons squeezed Xecia's stomach curiously. She pried open an eye and saw the thing hanging from her shirt and looking up at her with what seemed to be a giggle.  

Reaching out and lifting the thing off of her, Ya bowed to Xecia, saying, "Thank you, my dear. I think this design is ready."

The crew of the Vorascha One had disembarked in search of civilisation. Across clefts and crags the Andonian aliens trekked, watchful and fearful of the denizens of this world. Rion launched high into the air, getting a view of the immediate region. Nothing but bizarre rock forms and sparse vegetation.  

Whisper flitted about Ewansa's helmet, patting it excitedly. The little being had not only recovered from the recent exertion, but was energised like never before. "I feeeel bettter toooo," said Ewansa with a louder voice than any had heard him use before.  

"What is this place?" muttered Stickman, staring up at the towering columns of sculpted rock. "There's no signs of anything, but obviously something did this."  

Cat frowned, eyeing the same rock formations with suspicion. "We may not want to run into whatever made those."  

BOOM! BOOM!  

"Did you hear that?" said Cat. "Listen."  

The group of them halted, straining their ears to the wind.  

BOOM! BOOM!  

"It's coming from behind us. Rion, let me get on your back again," said Stickman. "Up, horsey!"  

With a quick convulsion, Rion launched into the air, bringing the source of the sound into view. Cat, Ewansa, and Whisper watched as the two slowly descended. Stickman looked agitated.  

"Well?" demanded Cat.  

"Well, good news and bad news," said Stickman rapidly. "There's a massive walking creature thing coming this way. And it has a freakishly huge drill. Guess we know who made all these holes."  

"That's the bad news or the good news?" said Cat slowly.  

"That would be the bad news. The good news is that the ship's engines were pretty much destroyed anyways."  

"What?" snapped Cat.  

"That drilly monster thing sort of drilled the ship clean through and tore it apart. We didn't need it anyways, right?" chattered Stickman, talking faster and faster.  

"I think we run," said Cat.  

"I think you're right," said Stickman.  

BOOM! BOOM!

Sirens screamed in the night. The menacing towers that had displaced a quiet neighbourhood were quiet at first. Part of the largest structure seemed to have been sliced off and it had partially collapsed. No lights nor sounds of activity followed after the first appearance. But as the days wore on, people started going missing. Houses were mysteriously ravaged, destroyed from the inside. Fear swarmed through the city.  

Then the rumbling came. On a cloudy night filled with non-stop emergency calls came the flagship of the Andonian orbital fleet. A monolithic column of metal roaring overhead, casting its shadow across half the district. A shuttle launched from its belly that jetted down for the cursed towers.  

Commander Visch, Joxx, and a sizeable armed escort exited the shuttle. The land around the bizarre alien structures was like a desert. Lifeless soil encircled the region and an acrid toxic smell filled the air.  

"To the platform tower," stated Commander Visch, motioning towards the smaller of the towers. It was one of the more intact looking ones and seemed to have landing bays for ships along its length.  

Joxx followed alongside the snake-like commander. It was very unsettling being here. So many people had lived on this spot, and suddenly they were gone, probably killed instantly. Were they buried underfoot?  

The base of the tower neared. Irregularly spaced windows dotted the face of the building. It was clearly in disrepair, ancient even.  

"Here sir, there's a door," reported one of the armed guards, indicating a large entry door. They seized it on both sides and forced it open, causing a fair bit of the ceiling to collapse. A flare was fired into the depths of the hallway revealed to them.  

"Why don't we check out the biggest one, Commander Visch? Surely it is the most important?" asked Joxx nervously, taking rapid small steps forward into the structure.  

"Orbital receiving station. It will tell us where these buildings came from," rasped Visch without taking his eyes off the hallway. His gaze darted to every opening along the way, be it doorway or crevice. He bore his own armaments mounted on his side, two large cannons. Joxx listened to them constantly swivelling about, targeting wherever Visch concentrated.  

"Stop," intoned Visch, bringing the entire team to a sudden halt.  

"What is it?" asked Joxx. Then he saw. The hallway before them continued onwards, but the floor in front of them had ended. Below was a vast pit, bored through the earth down out of sight. The walls beyond were heavily damaged, as though by claws.  

A chittering sound emanated from below. Then rapid skittering from the ceiling.  

Visch's guns swivelled upwards as he said to his men, "Scatter. Kill what moves."

"The ground is alive!" he screamed. "Get out of here!"  

A lancing beam of light slashed across the terrain, the sampling unit lashed up a section of the writhing soil. The gash quickly filled in and tiny tentacles burst forth from it.  

"I need to take some of this!" she called to the others as they began to run. Turning to inject one of the blobs with eyes, she suddenly found her arm enveloped by a mass of dark hunger.  

Twin blasts of energy splintered the thing apart. "Go!" he ordered, hovering across the field menacingly. She picked up her equipment and ran, brushing off scraps of the mutating stuff.  

Our captain made it to the cliff edge first and was helping her up, but then something violently sucked her into the rock itself. She screamed, so strangely. It sounded like a dozen voices wailing at once.  

Then the ground opened up beneath me. A calm ocean of night streamed out of that horrible maw, filled with grasping protrusions. I held onto the edge, but I lost one of them to that abyss. Down it tumbled, out of sight.  

Suddenly a dark shadow crossed over me. I looked up and saw a terrible creature slashing with knives at the air, but glaring down through slashed open eyes.  

"We can improve you," it trilled calmly and with terrible glee. Then with a quick movement it--  

"Are you paying attention, Se?" asked an annoyed woman's voice.  

Se shook his head. Something had come back to him. Memories. It felt like it was still happening.  

"Waking dreams again? Well, deal with it, you need to get this done," she snapped. "Remember to take these, you need both of them. Activate it immediately when you're done, don't waste time trying to get out of there first. Understand?" She stared down at him angrily, waiting for an answer.  

He raised his head slowly and nodded. "Yes, I'm sorry Doctor. I'm ready."

"We will be with you soon, Captain Toxal," said the voice again. It had been repeating this over the intercom for the past six hours as one by one his crew were admitted for screening. Whatever had happened to the mine was extremely abnormal, but the treatment they were getting at this facility was equally abnormal. Keta had not been allowed to talk to any of his crew that had been examined, nor was he told if anything was wrong with them.  

"Crewman Abernoth Tetani, you are next," came the calmly delighted voice over the intercom again. It was also strange that they were calling his crew in by name. Keta was fed up by this point and pushed Abernoth back into his seat.  

"I'm going to find out how things are going," said Keta sternly.  

He crossed the room to the admittance door. It smoothly slid open, releasing a familiar odour. The scent sent his mind spiralling back into the past, years ago. A horrible memory.  

"My, my, you aren't crewman Abernoth Tetani, are you?" said a bushy haired scientist across the room. His eyes glistened blackly and an unsettling serene smile covered his face. "Captain Toxal seems eager to be improved it seems. Well, let's get started!"  

Keta looked around and spotted the previous crewman to enter. He seemed disoriented and did not move. With horror, he saw the worker's hands. One had been grown or grafted onto a pick axe, while the other seemed to be fused into one of the crystals they had been mining. His eyes widening, he suddenly saw formless dark masses around the room, oozing, three eyes gazing out of each. Then he heard the worker slowly turn around. His feet made squelching sounds, and Keta saw that his feet were not feet at all, but more of those dark eyed masses. Looking at the worker now facing him, he mouthed a silent scream. The eyes were but vertical slits of darkness, his mouth a wide expression of terror.  

"Ke--"

It had been days suffering in this desert wilderness, dodging roving search drones. Without the help of the Wanderer, they would have all been captured or killed. Matteheus dragged the metal beam along the ground, weary of its weight. It was the weapon he had been given to help defend the group when "things" threatened. Nothing much had bothered them for a few hours. It felt like a vacation.  

The Wanderer strode ahead of them, his tattered robe blowing in the sandy wind. His long pincher staff cast a distracting shadow along the ground behind them. Yet it was that staff that most owed their life to. When the abduction first happened, Matteheus fled outside his house, only to see his neighbourhood surrounded by alien structures and towering spider robot drones. The Wanderer had rushed in and distracted them with the power of his staff, while herding the people of the neighbourhood to safety.  

Most had been hidden in a protected shelter away from the streets, out in the desert lands. Meanwhile those able to fight went in search of survivors and other lost souls. Just two days ago they'd found a strange little alien creature with some sort of mental powers. It didn't seem to know where it was, but had somehow survived the hostile environment. They brought the little creature into the group and it had since proven very helpful.  

They also had three ex-Venturenauts, or so they claimed. The large one had very detailed descriptions of the ship's key. All were eager to fight, though when it came to it, they tended to run around in circles more than engage attacking creatures.  

"Stop, quiet!" snapped the Wanderer, lowering his staff.  

Matteheus lifted his heavy metal beam, eyes widening, his heart suddenly racing. It was time again. He hated this part.  

"Six of them... Egg, stand by my left side. Matteheus, behind me. Filler, distract the ones on my right until I get to them," ordered the Wanderer.  

Everyone formed a circle, back to back, facing outwards. The sound of chattering and burrowing neared. Matteheus spotted a sinuous shape erupting from the ground. Four irregular shapes neared Egg, his hands raised readying to push them back.  

Burrowed Filler felt the sixth one clawing underground. Terrified, he whispered, "They're all around us!"