The ship’s alarms rang through his head. A bloodied grey fist met the door’s panel; he dared risk a glance back at the black, demon-like Primor still bearing down on him. He cast himself across the threshold seconds before the two heavy blast doors slammed together. He hit the ground hard while his Aethr plasma rifle clattered nearby. He barely got time to recover as he caught sight of the monster now lodged between the doors. Vadir grabbed the rifle and exhausted the last of its stored aether. It proved enough to push the monster back. The doors slammed shut at last. Enraged, the attacker hurled itself against the reinforced door and left behind a bulging dent.

The blast doors would not hold for much longer. For Vadir Kor, all that mattered was surviving the nightmare he now found himself in. That meant getting off this doomed vessel by any means necessary. He estimated that he had only minutes before the ship’s current trajectory saw it breach the human world’s outer atmosphere. He checked the rifle at his side. Its sphere-shaped aether converter had ruptured, rendering it useless. He resigned himself to leave without it. Once back on his feet, he hurried down the ramp and found the unguarded transport ship. From listening into the ship-wide comms, his fellow Kaskari were rallying elsewhere. A single transport slipping into the darkness would likely go unnoticed in the current chaos. Cowardly as this is, I’m not a fighter. I just want to live.

He approached a nearby monitoring station that would allow him to interact with the ship’s AI.

He entered the command that would lower the ship’s ramp.

The response that followed did not surprise him.

On whose authority?

He sighed while plugging in the card he had taken from a dead officer.

Deploying the ramp now.

A series of loud bangs coming from behind him had him half-turn. Please hold that a little bit longer.

He removed the card and entered the transport ship, hurrying to the console. The first thing he did was plug the card in and raise the ramp. He ran through the preparations for take-off when one of his fellow crew members emerged from the shadows, covered in that dreaded black sludge. They were a lost cause.

“Ship -” the words had barely escaped his lips as the symbiote within this man took over his body. Now clad in deep black, crystal-like wings erupted from its back and unleashed a torrent of potent aether crystals at the front view screen.

“Fire! Fire! FIRE!” Kor shouted pushing himself back into the pilot chair as the black spikes exploded against the thankfully reinforced screen. “No more delays! We’re leaving.”

The plasma turrets on the underside of his transport ship began their assault on the creature. While it stood its ground and tried using its now hardened wings to shield itself from the turret blasts, it could not withstand the intense heat and explosive firepower forever. Its body broke and disintegrated. It left Kor wondering if it could even come back from that. His heart reached a fever pitch as he heard more scrambling noises on top of his ship.

“Tracking multiple hostile entities on the hull,” the ship AI said candidly. “They are intending to breach.”

As if on cue, the ship’s metal heaved and bent. Steam from the ruptured pipes filled the seating area behind him. “Don’t just tell me. Deal with them too!”

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The ship obliged, and the topside turrets did their part in melting whatever resided on top. Black congealed blood dripped down the front view screen as Kor fastened himself in and engaged the lift-off procedure. It wasn’t long before he had exited the hangar, and for the first time since this mess began, he let himself relax. He marvelled at the view of the blue and green jewel below. He had found his salvation, but it had come at the cost of everything behind him. The Dauntless hull turned an intense mix of orange and yellow as it hit the atmosphere. Hull, debris and more parted with the ship. An explosion close by catapulted Kor towards the embrace of the alien world. It took a few moments for the gyros to orientate the transport ship, and he soon sank into the chair. At least for now, the worst was behind him.

He spent a few minutes calculating the best approach and realised he was more than spoilt for choice, but this planet was new to him. He wouldn’t know where to even begin. He did want to avoid major population centres, and Earth, despite its majesty was also covered by Terrans. The risk to his life would be too great. In the end, he put his faith in the automated system. Once it finished its calculations, it set him on course to land. Unsurprisingly, the people down below did not take too kindly to this. The ship’s radar soon showed multiple red dots on approach, and the autopilot reacted in kind. It began a series of automated combat manoeuvres dodging most of the inbound missiles. The ship dipped before it returned fire, and beads of sweat rolled down Vadir’s cheeks as the transport lurched one way or another.

He considered overriding the combat subroutines, but then he’d have to land manually. For a brief moment, he wondered if the Terrans would respond to his hails. Before he could try this, something else grabbed his attention after being disturbed by the ship’s sudden arching descent. The loud clanking and grinding made him attribute it to the loosened wires above him, but it was much worse, for, out the corner of his eye, a tall, bulbous mass lowered itself from the hole in the ceiling. It must have been hiding among the tubes where it chose to rest. Its long claws scraped against the metal floor as it slivered towards him. Kor still had his plasma Kelcior pistol, but in the time it would take him to leave his chair. The foul Primor would be upon him. Without moving too much, he keyed in commands for the ship to shift direction. The sudden tilt caught the creature by surprise, and it fell toward him before hitting the glass screen. Realising the danger it was now in, bladed tendrils rose from its back as it also tried to get back to its feet. It frantically attempted to strike Kor, but each one narrowly missed his squirming face. Kor without hesitation fired off a few plasma shots, enough to shatter the glass, sending the Primor out of the ship and into the embrace of the world below. “Ship, lower the visor!”

The noise and howling came to a sudden stop when the ship’s metal screen slammed into place and a series of holographic images were projected so that he had a rough idea of what was in front of him.

“Captain,” said the AI.

“What is IT now!”

“I had engaged auto-evasion subroutines, but by entering a manual order, I need to recalculate our entry.”

“Do what you have to do.”

“Understood. I will assume direct control from this point forward.”

The ship jerked up from its nosedive and took caution to evade the unabating inbound threats from the Terrans.

“I’ve marked the optimal landing area,” the ship AI said. “I can’t promise a smooth landing.”

“Thought as much. Any way we can open communications with the Terrans?”

“I’ve been attempting to. However, I am getting no response. I don’t think they understand my request.”

“Of course.”

The next few seconds were spent approaching the designated landing area. The onboard turrets continued to keep the determined missiles at bay. “Engage the emergency landing protocol.”

“But, Captain?”

“Do it.”

The final set of missiles came in close together and exploded upon contact with each other. The blast resonated out and hit the ship’s right side. Though the hull held, the ship shuddered violently as Kor took back the controls and pulled the ship up moments before it met with the ground. The sudden impact brought only a resounding silence. And for Kor, an uncertain darkness followed.