Planet F-33 - Queen's Chambers
[Static crackle... Main base... Respond...]
The communicator remained silent, nothing but dead air. Delta, leader of Delta Team, bit her lip in frustration.
"Captain, forward access blocked. Scans impossible. Unknown material—pure white wall."
"Rear's the same. The entrance we came through... it's gone."
Reports from her teammates, Echo and Foxtrot. Bewilderment laced their voices.
That inexplicable white wall was reshaping the ship's interior in real time, like a living organism. There was no way to know what it was.
But Delta fought to stay calm amid the chaos. A commander couldn't lose her cool—not when it meant sacrificing her team.
She switched the comm channel to Mike Team.
Mike Team Leader's voice was frantic too.
Delta pulled up the tactical map and marked a rendezvous point.
Delta Team began moving. Only 20 minutes since entry. In that short time, two elite code teams had vanished. Leaving behind only brief final screams: 'Shit...' and 'What the hell is this?'
The corridor echoed with silence. Rifles raised, they advanced, ears tuned to Mike Team's chatter.
Mike Team Leader's voice shifted.
Gunfire erupted over the comms.
"Mike! Report! Enemy type! Numbers!" Delta shouted, but only screams and chaos answered.
Crunch. A crushing sound. Sizzle.
Silence. Mike Team's three biosignals winked out one by one.
"......"
Delta froze. A chill ran down her spine. Thirty seconds. Not even a fight—a one-sided slaughter. No ID on the enemy, no description. Just "white" and "red eyes."
"Captain... Mike Team too...?" Echo's voice trembled.
Delta made the call. "Mission abort. Everyone evac."
No more ops. Priority was surviving to report this to HQ.
"Blast through if we have to. Move!"
As Delta took point, a bubbling sound rose from the floor beneath her feet. Her augmented hearing and reflexes screamed danger.
The deck was boiling.
"Evade!!!"
Delta spun without hesitation, shoving Echo and Foxtrot aside. BOOM! A pillar of white slime erupted where they'd stood. Her teammates dodged thanks to her push, but the pillar grazed Delta's right shoulder.
Sizzle!
"Nngh!" Delta rolled across the deck, stifling a groan. Her right arm—from below the shoulder to above the elbow—suit and flesh melting away.
"Captain!"
"Stay back! Watch ceiling and deck! Monster's here!"
Gritting through the pain, Delta yanked an emergency kit with her left hand. Pssht. Hemostatic spray and rapid cryo-foam on the wound. Numbing agony cleared her head.
"Enemy's highly acidic. Touch means death. Don't trust your suit's rating."
Breathing ragged, she barked orders. "Assume we're breaking out. No scattering."
But that order couldn't hold. The corridor walls began to shift. Like a living maze, white walls rose and fell.
"Wha—?! Captain!"
"Echo! Foxtrot! To me!"
Too late. Walls slammed up, splitting them. Echo and Foxtrot pushed to the opposite corridor; Delta alone.
Her subordinates' panicked voices over comms. Delta pounded the wall.
"Stay calm! Find a way through! I'll try from this side!"
Her words echoed into void. Then Echo's scream.
Rat-tat-tat! Gunfire. Squishing sounds.
Delta squeezed her eyes shut. Endgame. All dying here?
But then—
Echo's voice turned joyful.
"......What?"
Hope. The dying embers reignited. Even this invincible monster had a weakness. It fled—meaning it felt pain, feared death.
"Got it. On my way! Don't lose it!"
Delta sprinted toward open paths, chasing their signal like a madwoman. Roles reversed: they were hunters now, the monster prey.
Fueled by thoughts of avenging her dead comrades, Delta raced faster toward their ping. Rounding the corner, she spotted Echo and Foxtrot ahead. Plasma launchers raised at a huddled white mass in the corridor corner. Shrunken, trembling—no trace of its former menace.
"Hah... hah..."
Delta joined them, left hand leveling her plasma pistol. Vengeance and triumph swelled.
"Finish it."
Her command: "Fire on my mark!"
Whoosh! Three streams of blue flame engulfed the white blob.
[Kieeeek!]
The monster's shriek filled the corridor. Burning flesh stench as its body twisted. Die already. Burn to ash. Delta maxed output, praying it'd blaze into a pyre for her fallen team.
But...
Something thrashed violently, then... calmed?
[Kieeek... Kyaha... Heh...]
The shriek morphed. Not agony—laughter, leaking uncontrollably.
[Kyahahahaha!!!]
The thing laughed madly amid the flames.
"......?!"
Delta's blood ran cold. Wrong. All wrong.
[Ahh. Nice face.]
The flaming mass exploded outward—not fleeing prey.
"Evade!!!"
Too late. A massive white wave crashed over them. Vision went white. No time for pain—Delta's consciousness snapped.
*
"......Nngh."
How long? Delta woke to a splitting headache, staggering up. Her helmet lay shattered. Long hair spilled over her bare face.
"......Alive...?"
A miracle. Swept by that wave, yet here. Suit's barrier at the last second? Monster's mistake?
She scanned: corridor slathered in white slime. Echo lay in the center.
"Echo!"
Rushing over, she shook him—then felt the wrongness. Pffft. Empty suit, deflated like a punctured balloon.
"......?"
Trembling, Delta peered into his visor. Empty. No hair, no blood—just pristine void. Suit husk, contents surgically removed.
"Ah... Ahh..."
Terror choked her. Footsteps nearby—Foxtrot, slumped against the wall.
"Foxtrot! You okay?!"
Please, just you survive. Grabbing his shoulder, she turned him.
"Foxtrot! Snap out of... it..."
Words died. Inside his helmet: dozens of red eyes crammed where a face should be. Like a jar of candy, eyeballs rolled to meet her gaze.
Crack.
Eye contact. Visor spiderwebbed.
Shatter! Glass burst; white fluid laced with red eyes gushed out. Hitting the deck, it writhed, merging into a massive slime.
The behemoth filled the corridor, looming over Delta. It spoke.
"Hello? Lowly human."
Flawless Federation Standard. That broke her mind.
"Heek... Kyaaaaah!!!"
Delta bolted, blind panic. Weapons? Teammates? Mission? Irrelevant. Just escape this nightmare.
Lungs burned. Heart pounded to burst. But she couldn't stop. Squishing pursuit behind.
No destination—just instinct toward a door ahead.
Beep. Whirr.
No time for hacking tool. She overloaded the code, forcing unlock. Crash! Tumbling inside, slamming and locking the door.
"Hahk... Hahk..."
Slumped against it. Alive. For now. Hide here... signal for rescue...
Trembling hand flicked the room light.
Click.
Her legs buckled.
"Ah......"
The room was hell. Worse than outside. Walls, ceiling, floor—blanketed in white flesh and vein-like slime. Like tumbling into a monster's gut.
But the true despair: amid that horror, on a bed buried in flesh...
A girl slept soundly, oblivious.
Snore... Snore...
Her serene face clashed so utterly with the surrounding inferno—it amplified the terror.
Delta realized: she'd fled not to safety, but the nightmare's heart. The queen's bedroom.
Clutching her mouth, she screamed silently.