In the middle of space, a small spaceship suddenly appeared. Severely damaged, whole chunks of the spaceship were obviously missing. For several minutes nothing seemed to happen, then the engines in the back of the ship tried unsuccessfully to light up.

A violent explosion ruthlessly tore the engines apart, and charred debris was sent through space, as the ship tumbled in distress. Small jets fired on the ships surface forcibly stopping the movement of the wrecked ship, and it began to limp forwards slowly, as if it was desperately trying to move away. 

It became clear that it was attempting to run away when another three ships appeared. Each one was an ominous black color, almost impossible to distinguish amongst the darkness of space. Without hesitation, each one aimed at the ship and fired. Several bright flashes occurred and the small ship was sliced into pieces and a short explosion tore it apart.

Two of the black ships, soon left, leaving the third to scan the remains. It sent out a beam examining each large piece of the ship. Sensing something it sent out a pulse and destroyed one part. Seeing nothing else, the ship moved on and charged up its engine and disappeared.

From the last part that was ruthlessly destroyed, a metal container floated out. Several minutes later, another part of the broken ship exploded and pushed the metal container. Now the floating container was floating forwards. Time went by, and soon it fell into a star's gravity well.

Slowly it began to speed up as it fell, as it passed a large planet, it changed trajectories. Soon it approached a planet that was surrounded by broken space debris. As the container approached, an old satellite seemed to turn on and sent out a laser at the container. 

The laser damaged the container sending it spiralling below. As it entered the atmosphere of the world, it began to turn red and then white as it raced across the sky. It missed a large floating city as it plummeted to the ground. Sending out a large boom, it crashed into the ground.

After the crash, the surroundings soon became quiet again. The metal began cooling, and a knocking sound came. Soon a blue ooze began to pool out of the container onto the ground of the crater. An odd looking wolf came along and climbed down into the crater and sniffed at the ooze.

The ooze suddenly smacked the wolf across its face, and it yelped and took off. A few seconds later the blue ooze coalesced into a large blue blob. It climbed up the side of the crater and looked over the edge. Surrounding the crash site was a complete wasteland.

Old burned trees and sick looking shrubs dotted the landscape. The wolf was running full tilt away, apparently really spooked by the blob. It began moving forward, picking a direction at random. As it went, it would occasionally stop to bask in the harsh sunlight.

As it rolled along a large bug flew along and spotted the blob. It dove and attacked the blob, the blob sensing it's attack rolled to the side and swatted it out of the air. The wasp thing tried stinging the blob, only for the blob to crush the bug and began to devour it.

When it finished what it was doing, it continued along. As the blob explored the area around the crash site, it soon came across some blood. It tentatively touched the blood and gently let out an ethereal glow. It began following the trail of the blood to a cave. Inside the small cave it found a woman lying unconscious against a wall bleeding out.

A deep cut in her stomach was leaking blood, and she was grey faced. The blob approached her and sent out a pseudopod and touched her stomach. It left a trail of slime over the wound, properly sealing it preventing blood from spilling out. The blob began to look around and found an old cup among her things.

It put a tentacle into the cup, and a clear liquid began pouring into the cup. When the cup was full, it brought it to the women's lips and slowly the liquid carefully poured into the woman's mouth. After she properly finished the cup, she looked a little better. Sounds came from outside, and the blob took a look and saw a group of rough looking men were tracking the blood trail.

The blue blob rolled out of the cave at the men. The men were startled at its appearance, and one ran up and tried to stab it with a metal rod. The blob grabbed the rod and prevented the man from retrieving it. Cursing the man kicked at the blob only to scream as the blob cut a portion of the man's foot off.

The man fell to the ground, screaming shrilly and dragged himself away. One of the other men yelled at the blob and raised a weapon and a loud boom sounded and a metal slug entered the blob. The blob took the slug and flung it back at the man and he bitterly cursed and grabbed the fallen man, and they took off running. 

One of the men stopped and flung a ball towards the blob, and it exploded sending shrapnel everywhere. Several pieces lodged deep into the blob, but the blob did seem unharmed. Seeing this, the men continued running in fear. The blob seeing they were gone for the moment, returned to the cave with the woman.

The pieces of shrapnel dissolved while it went back in, where it found the battered woman was slowly coming around. The blob stopped in front of her and waved. Her eyes sensing movement, started to focus and she sat up terrified and looked down at her stomach. Then she looked back at the blob.

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Early in the morning, Jessica set off towards the old rail camp to get some supplies. She lived with her sister, and the old water recycler had broken down. So she had to head out to get a part to repair it. Taking her old rifle, Jessica set out down the old highway.

Looking at the sky, she didn't see any dust clouds on the horizon. Jessica had kept a fast pace. This area was frequented by raiders, and she didn't want to be caught by surprise. She heard a vehicle coming her way, and she quickly ducked behind some rocks.

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A ragged vehicle with a large mounted gun in the back rolled past her. It wasn't going very fast, as several armed men were walking alongside it. Soon a wagon being pulled by a set of lizard mounts came along. In the wagon were several men and women. Jessica frowned, it looked like a violent group of slavers.

Frowning Jessica kept silent as the group passed. Before she had left, she had asked her sister to stay in the bunker until she had returned. Hopefully, this group would not stop at her home. She was tempted to follow them and make sure, but that could be a bad idea. If they caught her, they might trace her back to her sister. 

No, it was best to head to the rail camp and alert them that there were slavers in the area. Waiting until the group had been gone for about thirty minutes she slipped out and headed quick as she could walk towards the rail camp. Luckily no raiders had attacked her while she was on the road.

Reaching the rail camp, she showed her pass, and the guards let her in. Jessica alerted them she had seen a slaver on the road, and they said they would call it in. Heading into the small town surrounded by tall metal walls, she found herself among some ramshackle buildings.

There were quite a few local people moving about, over the last ten years she had been coming here, the place had grown significantly. It was one of the largest towns in the area. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too long before the council of the city started to push the raiders out of the area.

Walking along she found the place she needed, an old parts dealer. Known only as Claw, he was a collector of all old junk. If you needed a part to properly fix something he was the one to get it for you. Of course however, his prices were pretty high. 

Opening the door, Jessica could smell old must and rust about in the air. Making her way through a variable pile of junk, she found an old man sitting behind a counter. His left arm was replaced with an old claw from a battle bot. Hence the name Claw. "How's it going Claw?"

"Good enough I suppose. What brings you here Jess?" Claw said.

"Our water cycler has broken down. Do you have this part in stock?" Jessica pulled out an old rotted device and handed it to Claw. 

Examining it, he asked "Is your cycler a one thousand or twelve thousand model?"

"Neither it's a nine fifty."

"Hmm those are pretty rare. Let me see if I have any in the back." Claw said and headed into the back.

While he was gone, she took a look around to see if anything was worth getting. She was eyeing a refurbished shield generator that might be useful in keeping mutant rabbits off her small garden. It was probably out of her budget, though, and she turned to look back when she heard him coming.

"Unfortunately I don't have any nine fifty chargers. What I do have is a nine hundred. It's a bit weaker, so your distilled water will take longer to get, but it will work. What you should really do is upgrade to at least the twelve hundred model."

"Wish I could Claw, but that takes a lot of stuff to trade or a lot of cash, neither of which I have with me. Speaking of cash, how much do I owe you for this."

"Not many are looking for that kinda model, so I'll be generous and say eighty Arcs."

Jessica frowned and said "that's a bit higher than my budget will allow. How about sixty Arcs and you take these e-packs in trade?" She pulled out two old e-packs that she no longer needed.

Claw took them and carefully examined them; he gently pulled out a cable and attached it and read some numbers off a glowing screen and said "Alright. I can do that."

Jessica nodded appreciatively, she was a bit relieved and passed over the Arcs. Then took the cycler charger and put it into her bag. "Thanks Claw, I will see you around."

"Hey Jess, just a head's up, if the charger goes on those old things, it typically means the pump is the next thing to go. Make sure you keep an eye on that. If that goes, you will invariably have to buy a new water cycler." Claw called out as she left the shop.

She waved thanks and headed out into the bustling street. Jessica had planned to do a little shopping before she returned to her home, but with those slavers so near, she wanted to make sure her sister was safe. So she headed out of town and headed back down the cracked road.

Halfway home, she belatedly realized she was being stalked. Taking out her old rifle she cocked it and said "Don't be following me, you are about to get shot."

When she said that, two thug's came out. "Look what we have here boys. Papa Bright is going to love this attractive addition to his stock."

Jessica aimed at them and said "I will shoot. Don't fucking get closer."

The men held their hands in a smirk, and she sensed something off about how they were smiling. Sensing movement behind her, she whirled around and rammed the barrel of the gun into the gut of the man sneaking up behind her. He started a tug of war with her over the gun, and she fired point blank into his stomach.

The man cried out, and when he fell pulled the gun out of her hands. Bitterly cursing she pulled out a knife and faced the other two charging men. The first man swung a bar at her in an attempt to sweep her off her feet. Jumping over it, she rammed her blade into the man's throat. He dropped, and the other man came at her angrily.

"Bitch, that was my brother! I'm going to skin you alive!" He yelled angrily and swung a sword at her. She retreated and attempted to block the blade. He was insanely hammering away at her, not even taking a break. Every block made her arms ache in terrible agony, fearing she was about to drop the blade, she took a chance and stepped forward under his swing. Then she jabbed her knife through the man's chest.

The man looked surprised and collapsed in front of her. She was picking up her knife when the first man started moving. Jessica quickly went to retrieve her rifle when the man yelled furiously "Papa Bright is going to fucking kill you!" Then he threw a strange blade at her. She attempted to dodge it, but to her horror, it turned with her and struck her savagely deep in the stomach.

Agonizing pain immediately flared up and she fired her gun straight into the skull of the wounded man. Looking down she carefully pried out the blade and saw it still trying to get her. There was a sickly green gel covering the blade. She jammed it into the body of the man. She was leaking alot of blood, and she had to get moving, their comrades would come to check on them soon given the violent commotion they made.

Heading off road, in the vague direction of her house, she began to feel woozy. Jessica knew then she would never make it. The blood was flowing too much. Whatever was coating that blade just made her bleed too fast. Reaching a small cave she sat down inside and wondered bitterly if her sister would ever find what had happened to her.

Slowly she closed her eyes, not before she heard a loud boom in the distance.