Marie floated above the Martian surface, allowing the silence of the outside to calm her down. After a few minutes, her breathing had stabilized, but she never stopped looking down into the hole she had emerged from, her face still filled with caution.
"Whatever this thing is, it affects the mind. What did these Martians do?" She asked herself, as suddenly, within the shadows of the hole she had created with her hasty exit, a child with distorted facial features emerged and looked at Marie with a predatory gaze, its eyes ever shifting.
"Marieeeeeee, join usss, join the family!" After saying this, the child began to melt visibly, turning into dark biomass that surged back into the shadows of the facility.
Marie's eyes shook when she saw this; not only was the thing able to mentally affect them, but death may not even be the end, and the thought of something using her body like a puppet sent shivers down her spine.
"I need to find Conor!"
She activated her communication device, but all she received was irritating static.
She continuously changed the frequency, hoping to find one that could connect, but as the static noise continued to echo in her ears and the thought of that thing below watching her, rage built up, and with an accidental surge of her Viltrumite strength, she smashed the comms unit.
CRACK!
The comms unit on her collar sparked before it released a thin plume of smoke.
Dark lines appeared on Marie's forehead, and there seemed to be a tension in the air thick enough that you would have to cut it with a chainsaw.
"Sigh..."
She was going to have to go back in there, and she was not happy about it!
As this was going on, Conor was heading deeper into the facility and having had memories of the games known as Dead Space and Resident Evil, he was fairly chipper as he walked the otherwise hauntingly pulsating halls, the shadows around him weaved into his cloak.
As the astronauts were picked off one by one, eventually, he was left by himself, and as such, no longer had to hold back his abilities.
SHNG!
SHNG!
SHNG!
His blade made of shadows condensed to the point that they became solid and pliable as it sliced and diced a bunch of Martians infected with the pink substance, each one echoing a sort of mantra that echoed through the halls as if it were some kind of ancient temple.
He held a map the matronly Martian woman had given him, which highlighted the quickest way to the core of the facility with a stern glare. Something was off; he followed the highlighted portions faithfully but found himself in a dead end.
The sound of bone blades scraping against the walls echoed in the halls, followed by the trademark chanting, causing Conor to spin around in place with his sword raised.
Across from him, a large Martian and Earthling mixed being that seemed to barely hold itself together swung its bladed arm towards him, causing it to stretch in his direction.
CLANG!
Conor moved to deflect the blade of the strange amalgamation, and the two proceeded to attack each other in a blur of motion, unseeable to normal human eyes.
SHING!
Conor's blade slashed the creature diagonally, causing it to almost split in half, but in a sight that caused his mind to inevitably return to the fight he had with that feral guy back on Earth, who seemed to heal from every attack.
"Who was that guy?"
He did not have time to continue thinking as the creatures blade swung towards his legs in an attempt to cripple him and he was forced to jump into the air and roll forward to break his fall.
As he completed his roll, his sword seemed to emanate pure shadows and caused the blade to appear illusory, as if it were both here and imaginary.
SHING!
His shadow-infused blade carved through the amalgamation like butter and severed the creature in two.
CRACK!
Within the wounded mounds of flesh, a glowing round object began to form cracks along its surface before suddenly.
SHATTER!
The orb shattered into billions of small flakes of light.
"What the hell!?" He couldn't help but mutter, but the sound of more approaching amalgamations forced him to continue his journey and turn back around to meet the dead end.
"Something about this is off!"
He said before raising his sword into the air and with a swift and casual motion.
SHING!
The wall that seemed solid for some reason caused his blade to pass right through it and strike the ground, causing his hands to become jarred
He sucked in a breath with frustration clear in his eyes, but his shadowy eyes continued to scan the hallway further ahead.
"The main laboratory should be just ahead. Soon, I will be back on Earth and go on a vacation!"
As he moved to the door, a Martian zombie shambled out of the room as if sensing his presence.
The Martian zombie raised its hand, and its lifeless eyes widened before the creature let out a bellow that caused the room around it to practically shake.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The sound waves alerted every zombified Martian within the facility, save a few soundproof areas, and soon Conor found himself surrounded by a veritable horde of zombies but it was the sound coming from the vents that caught his attention.
Conor stood still as the echo of the Martian's scream faded into a deafening silence. Then came the sound, the skittering. Not stomping. Not shambling. Skittering.
Dozens. No, hundreds.
From vents, from floor hatches, from behind false panels, the infected came crawling out like insects from a rotten corpse. Some walked upright, but many moved like beasts, limbs bent backward, joints popping and reconfiguring as they ran on all fours, eyes glowing dimly with pinkish static.
"They've evolved again," Conor muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing.
His shadow, once a cloak, now fanned out in a dozen tendrils behind him, mimicking the enemy's own grotesque appendages. He took a breath, centering himself.
The first wave came fast. Claws out, mouths open too wide to be natural. Conor sidestepped one and brought his blade in a wide arc. SHHK! Two fell, sliced clean at the waist, but their torsos kept crawling.
One launched itself at his face, he pivoted midair, and a sharp tendril of shadow skewered it through the mouth.
He landed hard, then spun, his cloak of darkness slashing out in all directions like an angry storm.
Yet, for everyone he felled, three more came. And worse, he could hear the voice again.
"Why fight the tide, Conor Iscariot? You belong to the dark already."
He gritted his teeth. "Not your kind of dark."
The shadow beneath his feet expanded outward like a living puddle, swallowing the bodies around him into a black void. But the infected were adapting. The ones at the back began throwing biomass, projectiles of bone and bile.
One chunk exploded near his leg, spraying acidic goo that sizzled against his boot. He winced and jumped back, just in time to see the wall behind him bulge.
The wall wasn't a wall at all.
It convulsed, then peeled open like rotten fruit, revealing a massive creature, a bulbous, eyeless mass with dozens of infant-like arms and a maw that opened sideways.
"Shit."
It lunged.
Conor raised his blade, but too late, the beast's maw crashed into him, sending him flying back down the corridor. He hit the ground hard, skidding through blood-slick tiles. Alarms flickered to life as if the facility itself had noticed.
"You're stalling, not winning," the voice said again.
Then—
CRACK!
The ceiling ruptured above the creature. A blur of white and red slammed down like a comet.
Marie.
She stood tall amid the wreckage, blood on her fists, eyes glowing faintly.
"You're late," Conor coughed, pushing himself up.
Marie didn't smile. She was breathing hard. "I went sightseeing. Saw hell."
The beast reared up, shrieking.
Marie's lips curled. "Round two, then."
Together, they charged, shadow and fury, blade and fist, toward the ever-increasing horde of deformed zombified corpses.
Their charge was brutal and efficient.
Marie led with a burst of raw Viltrumite speed, tearing through the corridor like a living missile. Her shoulder collided with the malformed behemoth in mid-lunge, sending it flying backward with bone-crunching force. Conor followed like a shadow, slicing down the reeling infected with surgical precision, each strike dropping another mutated abomination.
But the hallway behind them began to fill again. More infected crawled out from vents and floor panels, skittering and shrieking. The biomass had saturated the facility like a nervous system, now twitching and reacting to them in real time.
"They just keep coming!" Marie yelled, driving her fist through a Martian torso. "We need to end this, now!"
Conor ducked beneath a slashing claw. "Core chamber. I saw it earlier. The place is rigged to go nuclear if breached."
Marie spun, backfisting a lunging creature into the wall hard enough to leave a crater. "Then let's breach it."
They moved as one, flying down the warped corridor. The deeper they went, the hotter it became. Lights flickered. Pink tendrils bulged from the walls, pulsing in time with some unseen heart. The structure had stopped being mechanical; it was alive.
They reached a massive circular door, half-covered in biomass. Conor sliced the tendrils away while Marie grabbed the thick bulkhead with both hands.
"Hold your breath," she growled.
With a violent twist, she ripped the door from its hinges and flung it down the hall behind them, crushing two approaching infected.
Inside was the core.
The Martian reactor floated mid-air in a field of semi-organic cables and crystal pylons. Around it, massive containment tubes pulsed with pink light, pumping infection through the facility like blood.
Marie narrowed her eyes. "That thing's powering the whole mess."
"I know how to make it overload," Conor said. He knelt beside the control module and drew his blade. "I just need a minute."
"Then I'll buy you one."
She turned to the door as the sound of claws and scraping bone echoed closer. Dozens of infected were sprinting toward them now, snarling, limping, crawling. A living wave of corrupted flesh.
Marie leapt forward.
The first creature lunged, and she met it with a full-body tackle, slamming it into the wall hard enough to snap its spine. Another one jumped, she grabbed it midair and hurled it into a group, breaking limbs and tearing skin as they crashed together.
But more came. Always more.
She ducked low, spun, and kicked one in the ribs, sending it flying. Blood, black, and bubbling splattered the ceiling. Her arms were cut, her suit torn, but she didn't stop moving.
Conor slashed into the control lines, rerouting power to unstable nodes.
The reactor began to whine.
The reactor groaned, and the lights above flickered as the countdown began. Somewhere deep in the heart of the Martian facility, the ancient core screamed in a rising chorus of collapsing containment. But Conor and Marie weren't done yet.
"The survivors," Conor said, coughing as smoke billowed into the corridor. "They're still in that secured room. If we leave now—"
"I know," Marie growled. "I can get us there fast. Hold on."
She grabbed Conor under the arms and took off in a blur, moving through the trembling corridors like a missile. The facility was crumbling around them, panels falling, infected roaring in all directions, biomass ripping through the walls like veins coming alive.
Every step of the way, Conor could hear the building groan like a dying creature.
They broke into the survivors' corridor just as the emergency bulkheads slammed halfway shut. Marie dove under them with barely an inch of clearance, Conor bracing for impact, and then they were inside.
The Martians huddled in the reinforced room were already armed and alert. Four remained, two armed with sleek rifles, two crouched near the back, praying or whispering to each other in their guttural tongue.
When they saw Marie and Conor, they didn't cheer. They knew better.
"Facility's going to blow," Conor announced, landing on his feet. "We've got maybe two minutes, tops."
The lead Martian, a tall male with burned chitin along one side of his face, nodded sharply. "Then we go."
Marie turned to the others. "Stick together. I'll handle the heavy lifting."
They rushed from the room and back into the hellish corridor, the Martian riflemen taking point. One fired down the hall, hitting an infected mid-charge. The creature's skull burst, but more were coming, crawling from ceiling vents, smashing through side doors.
"Down!" Marie shouted.
She darted forward and swept one of the creatures clean off its feet, grabbing its arm and swinging its body like a club to clear a path. The Martians followed behind in a tight formation, but the enemy numbers were growing.
One of the riflemen screamed as a pink tendril wrapped around his leg and yanked him backward into the biomass-covered wall.
Marie reacted instantly.
She let go of Conor, shot backward, and punched through the wall, only to find the Martian already half-consumed, his face locked in a silent scream. He looked at her and then dissolved.
She growled low in her throat and rocketed back to the group.
"Go! We're not stopping again!"
The second rifleman kept firing even as the horde flanked them from both sides. His weapon clicked out of ammo. He roared in defiance and slammed the butt of the rifle into the skull of an infected, but three more were on him instantly.
Marie surged toward him, grabbed two, and slammed them together. Conor's blade ripped through the third, but not before a bone spur pierced the Martian's side.
The rifleman collapsed, coughing up thick blue blood.
He looked at Marie, then nodded once, silently, as if accepting what had to happen.
Marie hesitated a half-second and then scooped up the remaining two survivors and turned back toward the hangar.
Conor followed, covering their retreat, his shadows fending off the last wave.
As they reached the launch bay, the hangar door was already half-collapsed. The shuttle that brought them here still sat intact on its platform, lights blinking in standby mode. A miracle.
"Get in!" Conor shouted.
Marie tossed the two Martians in first, then turned to see the biomass chasing them through the cracked entryway like a living flood.
She didn't wait. She grabbed Conor mid-run and blasted forward, slamming into the shuttle's entry ramp just as the pink tide reached it.
The door hissed shut.
"GO!" Marie screamed.
Conor hit the launch command, the shuttle jolting as it lifted off the platform.
Through the viewport, the corridor vanished beneath a mountain of biomass. The reactor's final alarm sounded, a deep Martian tone layered with a digital scream.
Then came the flash.
A blinding bloom of white heat swallowed the horizon.
The shuttle punched through the thin Martian atmosphere, engines screaming as the facility below collapsed in a mushrooming vortex of red dust and blinding light.
Marie and Conor sat in silence, breathing hard.
Two Martians crouched in the back of the shuttle, staring out the rear window at the now-ruined landscape. One of them whispered something in his native tongue, voice cracking.
"We lost two," Conor said quietly, wiping blood from his face.
Marie didn't answer right away. Her eyes were locked on the fireball still rising behind them.
"They didn't die for nothing," she finally said.
Then she leaned back, exhaustion pulling at every muscle.
"I just hope that was enough."
But somewhere deep in the void of space, unseen by all of them, a sliver of debris spun quietly toward Earth. On it, barely noticeable, a single glistening droplet of pink biomass pulsed once.
Then went still.