Elisa jumped off the edge of the plateau and landed in a pile of loose sand on the ramp below.

“Please do not violate health and safety regulations,” ARI reminded her in a strict tone. “Your sick day balance is currently zero.”

Elisa ignored it and made her way down. Maximilian pulled up the dozer nearby and opened the cabin door. “Good morning, commander,” he called, his helmet visor open.

Elisa climbed into the cabin and took a seat beside Maximilian. “Colonel.”

“The new ramp should be complete in the next two hours,” Maximilian reported.

“That is good,” Elisa nodded approvingly. “Next we will get Sigrid's shelter and move it down with the others. Then back to work on the infirmary.”

Maximilian confirmed as he began assembling a mount of earth to push up the ramp. Then he suddenly braked hard.

“Poxes!” he cursed.

The abrupt stop catapulted Elisa back to the present. “What is it?”

On the sand below, three quadruplets of alien eyes looked up into the cockpit, their carapaces a bright golden sheen transitioning to red copper and faint green hues. Varicolored crystals sparkled on their backs and their antennas whirling curiously, as if sniffing.

Maximilian hit the horn, the dozer emitting a long, blaring hoot, but the three creatures remained unfazed.

“I don’t think dozers register as a natural enemy,” Elisa remarked.

“Maybe they’ll learn if I just run them over,” Maximilian snarled.

“Don’t do that,” Elisa said quickly.

“Everyone on alert,” Maximilian barked on the public comms. “We have spotted three alien beetle creatures near the foot of the ramp.”

One of ARI’s armed drones zoomed overhead, its weapons ready.

“This site is Company property! You are in violation! Vacate the premises at once! Trespassers will be terminated!”, it ranted. Whether it was due to the intimidating voice or the considerable amount of dust kicked up by the flying drone, this time the creatures responded, pressing their antennas flat against their heads and hissing angrily.

Elisa then spotted another string of golden droplets leap out of the side of the cliff, tumbling into the soft sand below. “There,” she said, pointing, counting five, six, ten. “More!”

As one, the three in front of them turned away from ARI and then used their many legs to sprint in the direction of the base. “Halt! Not that way,” ARI exclaimed, already in pursuit, which only appeared to incite the creatures to run faster.

“Red alert,” Elisa shouted, “Twenty or so creatures inbound for base from the direction of the plateau.”

The rest of the team acknowledged, but before anyone had taken defensive positions or ARI was able to catch up, the creatures were already amidst the structures, knocking over stacks of crates, burrowing in raw ore piles, climbing into industrial scaffolding of the refinery and clawing frantically at shelter walls.

Maximilian cursed once more as he reversed the dozer, then drove in the direction of the base.

“Can we shoot them?”, Ervin asked in an uncertain tone over the comms.

As if answering the question, ARI’s pursuing drone lit up one of the creatures with its laser, the reflectiveness of the carapace proving no obstacle. It partially exploded, its outer shell breaking into chunks as the superheated soft tissue below sought to expand, crystals scattering in all directions. “They are jeopardising Company investments, so yes, you can most definitely shoot them!”, ARI answered before Elisa could.

“Are there any creatures up there where Sigrid is,” Elisa asked.

“Negative,” ARI answered, much to everyone’s relief, as it blasted away another creature. Otto and Ervin stood shoulder to shoulder and shot at the fast-moving creatures with their pistols, but their lack of weapons training was showing. They only managed to hit one that came directly towards them.

“I’m having a hard time targeting them,” ARI exclaimed. “They are amidst the machines and I don’t want to risk damaging any of our equipment.”

The onslaught intensified. In a roar of screeching metal, the still unsecured distillation column toppled and came crashing down amidst the ore processing machines. Golden creatures swarmed over it triumphantly, before moving on.

“I guess you can leave that damaging the equipment part to them,” Maximilian scoffed.

As the dozer rolled into the base, he grabbed his compact submachine gun from the compartment beside his seat and leaped out of the cabin. From a crouching stance, he aimed carefully and fired a single shot. A golden beetle came tumbling out of the scaffolding supporting the ore processing hopper. ARI performed a strafing run and took out two more.

Elisa climbed out of the cabin, drew her sidearm and took out one at the top of the ore pile. Five more were burrowing into it, kicking up stones and dust.

“They seem very interested in the raw ore,” Elisa noted.

ARI circled overhead, focussing its extermination efforts on the beetles in the pile.

“Come on, let’s clear them out of the assembly yard,” Elisa shouted, waving to Ervin and Otto while Maximilian picked off two more interlopers near the furnace area.

The trio made their way between the pipe sprawl and worked their way through the inspection walkways that were too tight for ARI’s drone to navigate, let alone use weapons in.

For a good minute they searched, not finding any of the golden beetles. The site had gone eerily quiet. ARI and Maximilian had finished off the ones in plain sight, and there was no apparent destructive activity of the creatures.

“ARI, how many are accounted for?”, Elisa asked.

“Fifteen, but I have confirmed sightings of at least twenty-two,” it answered. “The remainder has not departed the premises. But I am failing to detect them anywhere. No discernible auditory or thermal signatures.”

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The three continued their sweep of the assembly yard, Elisa up front, Otto in the middle and Ervin trailing behind. Elisa half expected to be jumped on every time she rounded a corner, but there was still no trace of any of the creatures. “Stay alert, and keep watching above and below. The one in the cave jumped down my neck,” Elisa warned.

“We really should come up with a name for these things,” Otto mused.

“Get-out-of-my-base-things,” Elisa growled.

“We could name them after you,” Sigrid offered.

“No thanks!” Elisa said as she came around another corner, which caused her to freeze.

“What is that… stuff…”, Otto exclaimed.

In front of them was what used to be one of the catchpits for partially-refined ore, but now it was covered in dark blue-green goo that bubbled and foamed violently. The partially disintegrated husks of several of the creatures lay scattered throughout the site.

“Some kind of acid? It seems to be consuming the minerals, if you ask me,” Elisa ventured.

As she spoke, the liquid began to ripple in places, and tiny cubic glittering structures began to form.

“Crystals, it’s using the minerals to grow more of those crystals,” Elisa noted.

“What are we going to do about it?”, Otto wondered.

ARI was sure about one thing. “Not touch it!”

“We need to know what this is. I’ll get a sample kit and a stick,” Otto said, as he made off.

Elisa and Ervin observed the strange liquid solidify into more complex crystals. The substance almost seemed alive, moving as if it had a will of its own. In some places, it crept up against metal panels, then receded, leaving behind small residual crystalline patches. Strands formed, and began to meander in the direction of Elisa.

“I don’t like this…”

“Me neither,” Ervin seconded as they retreated. The uncanny appearance and unnatural movements of the alien substance was making his skin crawl.

Just as they turned back and went around the corner, Ervin grabbed Elisa’s shoulder and made her stop. Further down the walkway, a green-blue liquid dripped from the ore hopper above. Before they could react, the bottom of it melted and gave way, sending its contents plummeting into the space below. Dissolved ore, freshly formed crystals and a splash of liquid compounds rushed towards them.

“Up! Climb,” Ervin exhorted Elisa, pushing her up some thin section of piping that was small enough to grasp. Ervin groaned. Despite Elisa being a good two heads shorter than him, she was still quite heavy. After Elisa had made it up onto a ledge above, Ervin jumped up and pulled himself up, Elisa helping by grabbing his collar.

Below, the walkway they stood only moments before vanished under a layer of frothing blue-green ooze.

“Where now?” Elisa asked. There was no obvious way to go, as the machinery that towered over them had no surfaces that were climbable and the ledge did not extend far enough to go back around the corner.

Ervin looked for a way forward, but found none. As he peered over the ledge, he saw blue-green strands begin to form along the piping they had just climbed. “It definitely seems to know where we are...”, he exclaimed.

Elisa asked for help. “Ervin and I are stuck up in the ore processing section, between what’s left of the ore hopper and the catchpit. There’s some anomalous alien fluid below that likes to consume stuff and turns it into crystals and it’s coming after us. Need immediate assistance!”

“Unfortunately, I cannot access the area, unless you want me to begin cutting up equipment. But that might take a while,” ARI answered.

“I have an idea,” Otto offered. “The ore processing facility contains all kinds of chemicals. Can you see any of the silos?”

“Yeah, there are two opposite the walkway,” Elisa answered, understanding what Otto was getting at. She read out the serial numbers.

“The first one contains hydrogen sulfate, the second one sodium hydroxide,” ARI answered immediately.

“Easy choice,” Elisa said, taking her sidearm and blasting a few holes in the second silo. The pressurized contents began to spill out rapidly, jetting into the smooth panels opposite, before cascading into the goo below.

The substance bubbled and fumed, as a layer of filthy brown foam began to form on top. The tendrils that reached upwards seemed to lose both their adhesiveness and viscosity and streamed back down into the rapidly growing puddle.

“It seems to be working,” Elisa cheered.

In minutes, the alien compound appeared to be neutralized, as most of it solidified into a resinous brown foam. From above, ARI dropped three additional canisters into the catchpit area, in an effort to contain the outbreak. Otto and Maximilian made their way to the grating overhead, and began to cut away a section. Lowering in a small cable, they first extracted Elisa from the ledge. Since the hole above was not aligned, she had to swing across the gap and slammed into the first silo, before Maximilian could winch her up.

“Thanks,” she said, as she took Otto’s hand. They lowered the cable back down and swung it to where Ervin could catch it.

As Ervin let go of the ledge and swung across, something stirred in the substance below. In the far end of the corridor, a large, dark bubble rose to the surface of the foam. Without warning, it burst, sending blue-green droplets in all directions.

Ervin shouted.

“What’s going on,” Elisa asked.

“I’m hit by that stuff!”, Ervin replied, as they pulled him clear. “Careful, don’t touch it!”

There was a large glob of shimmering goo on his calf, which had already begun eating itself into the otherwise highly resilient material that made up his hard leg covering. Elisa quickly disassembled the greave and threw it aside. Then they realized there was a second patch on the side of Ervin’s glove.

Ervin quickly removed the glove, but saw to his horror that it had already made its way through. A dark patch had formed on his skin, and it was growing. Ervin rapidly considered his options, the memory of the creeping liquid and the desiccated husks of the golden beetles a dreadful prospect on his mind.

“ARI,” he said calmly, as he held his arm outstretched. “Cut off my hand, quickly.”

ARI’s laser sliced through his forearm before anyone could respond. Ervin did not flinch as the severed limb fell to the floor, the general numbness from the daily injections of pain medication mitigate the effects of their radiation burns made him experience disassociation with his body.

Everyone looked in stunned astonishment at Ervin, except Maximilian, who nodded approvingly. “Good thinking, reverend,” he said.

“Let’s pray none of it made it into my bloodstream,” Ervin said, inspecting his smoking and cauterized stump. The brutal but necessary act had seemed unreal.

Otto retrieved a clamp on a stick, and put the severed hand and armor plate into sample boxes. Small blood-red crystals had already begun to form on the skin.

“Put the boxes out on the sand for a while, to see whether it interacts with the polymer or not,” ARI advised.

The party hosed down the equipment to remove the last active remnants of the alien substance, and began taking inventory of the damage. Various critical machines in the ore processing facility and chemical yard had been destroyed. Without the input of raw materials, the fabricator was rendered useless. None of the pods that held the required spare components were present in the crater.

Maximilian's eyes stood furious. “And this is why we should have fortified our basecamp before we went to build that ramp…”, he brusquely reminded the others.

“That is easy to say after the fact,” Otto objected. “If we had done so, the creatures might as well have gone after Sigrid’s shelter and killed her before we could do anything.”

“Safeguarding our industrial infrastructure was more important,” Maximilian snapped back. “Some of the machines are irreplacable”

Elisa wanted to comment, but Ervin spoke first. “Let’s remain constructive here,” he said. “There are pods that have the parts we need. We just need to find them.”

“You’re right,” Elisa said. “The sooner, the better. Get on it, at once.” As the rest of the team acknowledged and made off, she took Ervin aside. “I’m so sorry about your hand,” she began.

“Just promise me that once we get the fabricator back online, the first thing we produce are some prostethics,” Ervin said.

“Still,” Elisa argued. She was impressed by Ervin’s mental stability and recognized his incalculable value for overcoming the challenges that undoubtedly lay ahead.

“I don’t need my hands to contribute to our undertaking,” he said with a wry smile.

“You’re right about that,” Elisa acknowledged.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/rsg1CKkC/cygnus-crystal-anomaly.png]