A harsh, metallic groan echoed through the dense hull of an abandoned space station. Across its gargantuan hull, the word 'NOROASTRUM' was emblazoned, though the once stark white paint had long since weathered and lost its luster in the dim light of the nearby red dwarf star. This was a sight that Chrys had come to see many times before.
Defunct manufacturing plants, resource silos, orbital mining colonies and black site laboratories; the relics of a bygone era of unregulated stellar growth. From the cockpit of her Reclamation-class vessel, she sat in the midst of a debris field that hung within the Noroastrum's gravitational field, maintaining a safe distance so as not to collide with any of the larger bits of salvage.
The two-bit bounty hunter had just returned from an expedition into the station itself, the mission being to retrieve a holodisk of data from the Noroastrum's central banks, information which the previous owners had a vested interest in seeing destroyed. The station's history was decades in the making, as nearly forty years ago it served as a forward operating laboratory for xeno-biological studies under a massive interstellar conglomerate, Stellar Paradigm Synergies (SPS). At a time when corporations ruled the stars, the most dubious and questionable of scientific endeavors were pursued on the outskirts of known space, and here in the Noroastri system the SPS had ventured to produce the most cutting-edge technological advancements in xeno-biology and gene splicing, only for the station to be abandoned over the course of Paradigm's dissolution.
Chrys' venture into the station had been harrowing, hours spent navigating the laboratories and manufactured habitats, fending off the plethora of escaped specimens that now ruled solely over the station. Had it not been for her compact evo-suit, she would've no doubt fallen prey to the strange machinations of some of those incessant creatures. She had succeeded in her mission, the holodisk was now in her possession, and she need only to calculate her navigation out of this derelict system to receive payment for a job well done. Of course, the coordinates for said rendezvous would first need to be sent.
As she set her gaze through the window of her craft, settled in her cushioned captain's chair, she would at last reach up to unclasp the latches of her evo-suit's helmet and pull it off, eager to breathe without the aid of a respirator. Her raven black ponytail draped loosely down behind her; for a space-born human, Chrys was perhaps average in all but her looks and the shapely proportions of her body, with pale skin and dark brown, almond shaped eyes that were often half-obscured by her bangs. Even in the relative safety of her ship, she would usually default to the snug comfort of her evo-suit, the slate gray material accentuating all the curves of her body from the significant swell of her breasts to the slight pinch at her waist, and the cushion of her rear and thighs.
After placing her helmet aside, she picked up the transmitter next to the main console, tuning to the frequency her employers had given her before she held the communicator to her soft, slightly pouted lips.
"This is Albatross." She began, utilizing her codename. "Package secured. Awaiting rendezvous coordinates for delivery. Please respond ASAP."
Her employers cared little for her time, and would likely remain radio silent for another hour to ensure there were no phantom spectators monitoring the frequency. Typical, she couldn't help but think, rolling her eyes as she watched the Noroastrum with a slight sense of anxiety. Her fingers tapped on the arm of her seat, legs crossing and uncrossing as the seconds tick into minutes. Why was she feeling so cagey? The nature of the things on the station had put her quite on-edge, in retrospect. They were insectoids, the outlawing of which had come in the wake of countless species being designed for the most inhuman of purposes; the ones she encountered most frequently were arachnoid, little flat-bodied and chitinous spiders with long tails.
Given the nature of the databanks on the station, she was able to unearth some of the developmental notes from the scientists who had bred those things, and the breadth of their experimentation had shaken her. Creatures designed specifically for reproduction with humans, specifically to incapacitate their hosts and promote their own constant, fervorous propagation. Made to latch onto their targets, finding any orifice that they might slide their ovipositors into, administering fluids laced with a chemical cocktail that would render their victims practically catatonic and addicted to their vile run-off...
It drove her stomach to churn, thinking about how one of them had leapt onto her helmet as she had gunned her way through a swarm of them. Its legs latched on, and she was made to watch as the unsightly sheath on its underside split and its grotesque, lengthy alien member plunged out, as if seeking her lips. So potent was the things stench that she could almost smell it through her helmet! Her evo-suit's regenerative fabric quickly mended itself as the swarm slashed and tore, its systems thankfully not failing even as she knew in the aftermath it would need recalibration. For once, she had cursed herself for not wearing anything underneath the suit itself, though she reasoned anything that was worn underneath wouldn't have saved her if her suit's systems had failed in the end.
There had to have been thousands, and she knew that somewhere in that station, there were probably looters and salvagers who had fallen into their nests and added to the unseen droves of incubators that would've facilitated such numbers. The more she dwelled on it, the more she began to stir, brow furrowing as she silently wished for some way to destroy this lumbering monstrosity of a space station and know those horrors were exterminated from the universe permanently. She wasn't sure why her employers hadn't done as much themselves, if they intended to keep this place's very existence under wraps. Perhaps they still had a vested interest in the awful things that dwell there; the idea made her sick.
After a beat, her eyes widened. She...was feeling somewhat ill. Not just from her thoughts, but from something else, her mouth pooling with warm saliva as she sat up in her chair. Something was wrong.
Softly, Chrys sniffed at the air. Beyond the smell of the thawed oxygen that filtered into the cockpit, there was something else acutely off, and dreadfully familiar; hints of the potent musk that had seemed to hang around those little insectoid creatures in a dense miasma, which she'd only gotten hints of through her helmet. For a moment, she rationalized even as her breath quickened, chest rising and falling a bit faster as her eyes dart left and right. Surely their stench was just lingering on her suit? That would make the most sense; she'd only just taken off her helmet, of course she would only notice it then.
Her pistol was right in front of her on the console, and her helmet sat beside her. All she had to do was put her helmet on, and the musk would no longer be a hindrance. The thought brought her relief, especially as she remembered how good of a defense the helmet had been before, and quickly she grabs it in both hands and brings it forward in preparation to clasp it back into place.
'CONK', from just above, a noise so loud it sent a jolt of shock through Chrys' body as her head snapped up toward the sound, perhaps the worst decision she could've made at that moment.
From the shadows, the shining carapace of her intruder reflected the stark red light of the nearby star, making apparent its six legs and long, coiling tail. When Chrys at last laid eyes on it, no amount of reflex would save her, the thing already dislodging itself from its hiding place and seizing the opportunity which she had unwittingly presented.
A meaty slap sounded off as it smacked squarely onto her face, her vision engulfed in darkness as a loud, shrill scream exploded from her vocals, the evo-suit's helmet toppling off of her lap. Panic engulfed her, hands flying up to try and wrest the thing away from her face, but it's spindly legs enclosed about her skull like the bony fingers of a skeletal hand. Already she thrashed unrelentingly in her seat, head thrown left and right as she claws desperately to work her fingers underneath it's central thorax, even as its foul and unabated stench assaulted her nose like an intoxicating fume!
It stung the nose, her eyes welling with moisture as they clamp shut, and involuntarily her screams devolved into a series of hard coughs and gags as she felt the insectoid's fleshy underside smearing excretions onto her face. Its long spine-like tail coiled downward, wrapping itself around her throat, just as had happened when the other one had landed onto her helmet. She recalled it now with horror, the process of it rooting itself in place, and without thinking she knew what was next to come.