Kai sliced through the air with his spear, clearing away a spray of sizzling, greenish liquid on his spear's pole. "Their blood's acidic," he muttered, steam billowing from his body, "but not enough to burn through the ship or me. Still, it's getting uncomfortably hot."
He glanced at his wrist comm, opening the holographic map. "A few stragglers, but most are clustered in three areas. Damnit, one's close to the AI core."
The map flickered out, leaving him bathed in the plasma spear's eerie blue light. 175 of those creatures left. A daunting number, a seemingly impossible task yet to complete.
"If I don't save this ship, I'm dead anyway," he muttered, more to himself than the empty corridor. Steeling his resolve, Kai pressed onward.
The passageways twisted and turned, a labyrinth of metal and flickering warning lights. He followed the trail of iridescent slime, a grim guide toward his next enemy. His footsteps echoed hollowly, punctuated by the steady hiss of steam escaping his armor joints.
With each slain creature, the Evo System chimed, his points tally increasing. But so did his sense of unease. He was winning individual skirmishes, but the real threat, the source of the infestation, remained.
A sharp turn in the corridor brought him to a massive blast door. Its surface was scarred and dented, evidence of a violent struggle. Through the cracked viewport, Kai glimpsed a sprawling chamber in chaos.
Thick wires hung in tangled snarls from the ceiling, smashed server racks littered the floor, and alien slime marred every surface.
The heart of the ship's command center, now corrupted.
He braced himself and shoved the blast door aside. It creaked ominously, the screech of metal echoing into the chamber.
The sight was a scene from a nightmare. Scores of the creatures swarmed the server room. Their segmented bodies, slick with slime, writhed amidst the wreckage.
They had ripped open thick cables with their razor-sharp claws, baring the pulsating strands of raw energy within. It was horrific, the ship's lifeblood lay vulnerable.
The aliens had wound their tentacles tightly around the exposed wiring, a sickening parody of an embrace. Thin, hair-like tendrils sprouted from the main tentacles, burrowing into the energy source, feeding ravenously.
Pulses of energy throbbed up their limbs, converging on their bloated central bodies. Their eyes, once dull and glassy, flared with an eerie luminescence.
Before his very eyes, the energy consumption transformed them. Their bodies swelled grotesquely, new claws and tentacles erupting from their pulsating forms, increasing their size and their threat exponentially.
Kai's sensors registered a sickening spike of energy in the surrounding air as the creatures grew and multiplied.
They were draining the ship's power, gorging on its very essence, and evolving into something far more monstrous.
A mix of fury and terror ignited within him. If these creatures depleted the energy reserves, it wouldn't just be the systems that failed. The dwarf star's containment field could fluctuate, and the disaster potential is immense. His life was irrevocably tied to this ship's survival.
"No way," he growled, the words echoing in the vastness of the wrecked command center. "You alien sashami not taking my ship!"
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A guttural screech echoed across the chamber as the creatures sensed his presence. Kai hefted his plasma spear, the crackling blue tip mirroring his steely resolve. This was more than just survival; it was a battle for ownership of the ship and what remained of his life.
He charged. The creatures surged towards him, a chittering wave of segmented bodies and gleaming claws. The first to reach him recoiled as the superheated plasma sliced through its chitinous armor, the stench of burning flesh choking the air.
Kai whirled and gave a baseball swing holding the back of plasma spear, plasma carving a path through the swarm. The alien screeches grew more frantic, their movements turning desperate.
Yet, more emerged from the shadows, their numbers seemingly endless, drawn by the feast of flowing energy. They poured from the ventilation ducts, clinging to the walls, claws scraping against his armor, acid spit searing the metal.
He twisted, deflecting a razor-sharp tentacle, then lunged, impaling an alien through its central mass. But for every one he killed, two more took its place.
A vicious blow slammed into his shoulder, sending him sprawling and hitting the wall. The plasma spear clattered from his grip.
Disoriented, Kai staggered back, the horde closing in. His internal sensors warned of overheating, and systems were pushed to their breaking point.
Just when exhaustion threatened to consume him, the ship's damaged A.I. voice flickered to life.
[...Main mission... safety...Power levels.... critical… Diverting auxiliary energy...]
A tremor thrummed through the floor as the flickering lights blazed with renewed intensity. Then, a blinding surge of energy erupted from the exposed cables, coursing through the aliens' clinging tentacles.
Arcs of electricity crackled across the chamber and the aliens shrieked, their slimy skin sizzling.
Their screeches turned agonized as the torrent of power overloaded their systems. Their segmented bodies spasmed, then swelled grotesquely. In a horrifying display, they exploded outward in a shower of viscous fluid and chitinous shards.
Momentarily stunned, The remaining charred creatures recoiled, their hold on the wires broken, the sudden withdrawal of energy leaving them disoriented and writhing.
Kai seized his chance, snatching up his plasma spear. He surged forward, the weapon blazing, fueled by equal parts desperation and determination.
After killing every single one in the room, Kai lowered his plasma spear, a wave of exhaustion washing over him.
Smoke curled from his armor, and the air crackled with the aftermath of the energy overload. The sight of the carnage, the alien bodies strewn across the server room….it should have horrified him. Yet, a grim satisfaction spread through him, maybe because they looked more like monsters.
He staggered over to a charred alien corpse, a bitter laugh escaping him.
"I guess nakji bokkeum's still on the menu."
He peered at his metallic hand in disgust. "ugh, why the hell even is there a sensor for smell in this body"
Yet a chilling realization struck him. Survivors remained. He glanced down. Even beneath the grime, his metallic hand was shaking slightly.
A flicker on his visual display caught his attention. The Evo system pinged:
[Goal: Eliminate the alien life forms, 132/176]
The battle was far from over, but he had won a critical victory. Breathing heavily, Kai tightened his grip on his spear. He wouldn't let these parasites claim his future or his ship.
Kai pressed onward, the holo map and slime trail leading deeper into the Colossus. The corridor warped into a utility tunnel, revealing the true scale of damage to the ship.
Ruptured coolant lines hissed, the air thick with ozone. The shredded husks of cleaning droids littered the floor, evidence of the creature's relentless consumption.
A chorus of metallic screeches and bangs echoed ahead. Kai tensed, every sensor on alert. Two distinct alien mobs awaited him.
He rounded a corner into a large storage area, once pristine, now a scene of ravaged chaos. Crates lay smashed open, their contents spilled across the floor along with the dismembered parts of cargo transport and ship repair droids everywhere.
In the heart of the carnage, eight alien creatures writhed among the debris, their segmented bodies contorting. Their slimy chitinous skin gleamed with a metallic sheen, while the keratin of their claws and tentacle horns – now transformed into metal – flashed like deadly blades.
Numerous beady eyes had fused, forming a single, baleful eye on each side of their heads.
With sickening speed, they tore at the deactivated droids wrapping them in their robust tentacles, their mouths working furiously. Metal warped and screeched as they devoured the very substance of the droids.
Their small exotic energy cores, pulsating faintly, were devoured with a sickening crunch.
Kai's fingers tightened around his spear. 'Most of them are gone,' he thought, eyes flicking to the holo map, 'and the ones that stayed… they have enough to evolve into something deadlier."