Chapter 1

The truck came to a halt in the middle of a barren landscape. In the distance ahead laid a derelict vessel. Someone got out of the truck, a human, who looked warmly dressed with brown hair. The man walked took a few steps towards the crash site. He looked back towards the truck.

"Hey, Charlie! Kalmeka!" he yelled. "Are you two seeing this?!"

Two more people got out of the truck, another human and a purple-skinned asari. All three of them were wearing standard clothing suitable for cold weather.

"By the Goddess..." Kalmeka exclaimed. She looked to Charlie, who was wearing a beanie, although he had blond hair underneath. "What do we have here?"

"Hell if I know." Charlie replied back. "Who knows how long this has been here, though?" A few moments of silence passed by. He broke the silence with "Well, Ethan?"

"I'd say we should check it out." Ethan suggested. "We might find something useful in there.

"We're supposed to report anything like this back to base, though." Kalmeka objected. "Besides, a storm's coming in." The trio all looked to their left and saw what looked like a massive thunderstorm approaching.

"I want to take a look in there thoroughly first, before we even think of reporting back." Ethan responded, a minor ton of curiosity in his voice. He felt good about this discovery and he didn't want to walk away from it.

"You two go on ahead." Charlie offered. "I'll stay here and stand guard of the vehicle."

Ethan nodded. "Good thinking." He looked to Kalmeka. "Shall we?"

Kalmeka was worried. The crash site felt like something bad was going to happen. "I'm not sure if we should check it out." she uttered out. "For all we know, it could be-."

"Kalmeka!" Ethan interrupted her, while placing a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be fine. As far as we know, we're the only ones here. What could possibly go wrong?"

Kalmeka took a deep breath. "If you say so. Lead the way." As Charlie stayed behind to guard the truck, Ethan and Kalmeka slowly began trekking towards the ship.

After a couple of minutes, they approached one of the entrances and step inside. The ship inside looked human, but it was a complete mess. The lights were switching on and off, and there was blood everywhere.

"From what it seems like, the crew died on impact." Ethan theorized. Kalmeka had a strange feeling in her gut that there was something else wrong with the ship.

"What's this?" Kalmeka asked. She looked towards a large symbol on the wall. It looked like a massive W with a few spots in the gaps. Above it read 'WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP' and below it read 'BUILDING BETTER WORLDS'.

"Weyland-Yutani?" Ethan wondered. "I thought they went under many years ago." Something wasn't right. "Let's keep searching the ship." he suggested. "Let me know if you see anything... suspicious."

Dr. Gavin Parker walked through the corridors of Aurora's Blade Research Facility. The colony of Aurora's Blade was set up about seven months ago on the planet Clotanca in the Caspian system. While serving as a small residential colony, it's main purpose is researching for the Alliance. There had only been one incident in the colony's history when it was attacked by a small Combine strike force, but it was easily defeated. An atmospheric processor had been installed to make the air breathable, but the colony still had to contend with high speed winds sometimes from the Caspian star, which was blue.

Parker had conducted some tests last night. He wanted to see if the results had come through yet. He went through into the labs.

"Good morning, everyone." he said enthusiastically. The rest of the staff replied back with similar phrases. "Have the results come through yet for our tests?"

"They have, sir." One of the doctors replied. "However, we can't continue until Kalmeka returns with the samples that you wanted." Kalmeka T'dase had gone out with Charlie Mercer and Ethan Harper to grab some samples of raw element zero to add to Parker's tests. They are on their way back, but Parker was unaware of them investigating the derelict Weyland-Yutani vessel about 5 kilometers from the colony.

"I'm starting to get worried about her." Parker commented. "They should be back by now."

"I'm pretty sure they're having some difficulties on the road, sir." one of the female doctors suggested. "You know how they are with a storm on it's way."

"I guess you're right." Parker accepted her conclusion. "Let's just hope they get back before it hits."

Charlie rested his back on the truck. He looked towards the dark skies ahead. When a storm hits on Clotanca, it's mainly thunder, rain and lightning. Now and then, a small tornado might even spawn too, but this is a rare occasion, and every tornado sighted from Aurora's Blade so far didn't threaten the colony.

He reached into his pocket and drew out a pack of cigarettes. He took one out and put the rest back into his pocket. He lit it with his lighter and began smoking. A few moments later, he threw it to the ground and stomped on it. He had just begun to whistle until he heard Kalmeka's voice.

"Charlie!" Kalmeka shouted out. "Help me!"

Charlie spun round and saw Kalmeka approaching him, dragging Ethan along with her. Ethan had something attached to his face. It looked like a white spider with a long tail wrapped around his neck.

"What happened?" Charlie asked.

"I'll explain in a second." Kalmeka panicked. "Help me get him in the truck. And hurry!" Charlie helped Kalmeka place Ethan in one of the back seats in the truck and strapped him in. They both then got in the front seats of the truck and began driving their way back to the colony.

"Kalmeka, I need to know!" Charlie shouted, trying to get answers from Kalmeka. "What happened?!"

"I don't know!" Kalmeka shouted back. "We were just investigating this ship that belonged to the Weyland-Yutani corporation when suddenly, that 'thing' jumped onto his face! I tried to get it off, but it just didn't budge!" Her panic levels were rising.

"OK, calm down!" Charlie exclaimed. "I'll keep an eye on him while you report this in, OK?"

Kalmeka took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. "Alright." she responded. She immediately got on the radio. "This is Kalmeka T'dase of Foxtrot-3! We have an incident going on here! Ethan Harper has some sort of creature attached to his face! You need to have the medbay ready for him in 10 minutes! Please hurry!" She put the radio down. She looked back at Ethan.

"I said I'll keep an eye on him." Charlie assured her. "Just focus on getting us back before the storm hits."

"OK." Kalmeka answered. The only thing going through her mind was whether or not the situation was going to get better or worse.

However, it was just the beginning...