September 25th, 2110. Tomb at Mount Ebrus, Republic of Iranistan.
Dr. Volkov oversaw the rest of the taskforce working inside the tomb. They have recovered the frozen corpse of the Titan and now it was lying on a stainless steel table inside the mobile lab. He saw the team's chief scientist approaching through the hallway.
-"Dr. Volkov, I've finished the analysis on the corpse. Interesting indeed, it wasn't what we expected to find but not completely waste of money and time." The man said.
-"I want the short story, Doctor. Let the scientific jargon to the official report." Volkov's tone was serious.
-"Ok, the humanoid have 8 feet tall, completely hairless and white color skin, his eyes were black with dark blue sclera, short, Grecian type nose which joints with prominent supraciliary arch and forehead. Blood is blue in color due to being based on copper, used Hemocyanin instead of Hemoglobin. This is accepted by some as the myth of the royalty's blue blood" Dr. Aleksei explained.
-"There's nothing interesting till now. What about its technology? That's the sole objective of this Taskforce doctor, not some National Geographic documental." Volkov scolded him.
Volkov was right, Stargazer Taskforce was the spiritual successor of OWLF or Other World Life Form taskforce created by the then Institute of Strategic Defense in the former United States, now United Americas. Weyland Corp had not only bought Lockheed-Martin and other industries and government contractors, also had assimilated the ISD after the company had instigated the formation of a capable space force by the Security act of 2101. Thus, Stargazer was now in control of the R&D department of the now merged Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
Stargazer primary objective had been at the moment of its creation, the acquisition of alien technology for reverse engineering, research and development of new weapons and in the given case the aliens were hostile –and there were files which prove that –to have a means of neutralize the menace.
-"I'm sorry Dr. Volkov, but this alien, this Titan as you call it didn't have any technology and there's nothing on the Temple resembling a weapon more sophisticated as a club or sword." The Doctor was trying to appease the growing anger of his boss.
-"Fine, what about the rest of this Tomb? All those inscriptions and markings had to be something."
-"Well, we had literally thrown the experts on those markings out of here, but we may discover something." Aleksei explained. "We need more time here."
-"You better hurry, Doctor." Volkov said, and then turned to his lieutenant "Set the charges, I want this place covered up as soon as possible"
- o –
After Volkov leave, Dr. Vladislav Aleksei hurried into examine the tomb before they set the charges. It was Volkov's modus operandi to erase all evidence of any illegal operation they have been conducted after extracted anything useful, so no other companies or government take advantage of what was left.
He observed the circular platform where the giant had been chained. A trail of dark blue blood ran from the corpse past the center and into an ice covered crevasse. "Odd" he thought, and remembered the Giant's ribs bent outside "something came out of it?" The crevasse was sealed by ice, it was enough for a man to crawl inside, and it seemed something was at the end. Through the clear ice he saw a blurred white shape. "What's that?"
One of the guards walked out of the hall towards the corridor, he was whistling while his rifle swung under his arm. As he passed a series of inscriptions, the symbols on the wall shone with a pale yellow light. Aleksei noticed and he touched them, out of curiosity. At that very moment, motes of blue light lit on the corridor and he exclaimed, surprised, the guard also stopped.
On the platform, he saw ghostly figures formed by the blue motes. "A hologram?" he reasoned, the inscriptions on the wall reacted first to the whistle and then to touching, activating a holographic recording, albeit one of low definition.
The hologram shown what he recognized as the corpse on the morgue, chained to the mountain, two more giants came forth in front of him. They wore robes and metal garments, the tallest a crown made from iron-like metal representing a vulture, and the other wings like those of a swan on his helmet, and a necklace on the shape of a big U or a Lyre, albeit one highly stylized and bulbous.
The one with the U pulled out something from his robe, some kind of urn, and put it in front of the chained giant, and then both giants retired from the platform towards the exit. The upper part of the urn opened and a cloud of tiny motes. Some small specks were expelled; these motes introduced into the giant by his mouth and nose. The giant shuddered and Aleksei saw how he opened his mouth in a silent scream.
The hologram flickered and then resumed its recording. The chained giant shuddered and convulsed, after a brief moment, he started to bleed from nose and mouth. Suddenly, something erupted from the giant's belly, Dr. Aleksei's thoughts were that it resembled a placenta, from it, a creature uncoiled, Elongated head, skeletal, thin body and a long scorpion-like tail, like one of the creatures depicted on the carvings at the entrance. The tiny creature fled towards the crevasse, leaving the blood trail.
-"What the Hell was that?" the guard returned and interrupted Dr. Aleksei's thoughts
-"A holographic recording system, it seems." Aleksei "responded, activated by the whistling. Bring me the portable drill; I want to excavate the crevasse"
-"You think that thing is still there?"
-"Dead and perfectly preserved I hope" Aleksei responded.
- o –
An hour later, the ice gave way to a small frozen cavern; Dr. Aleksei introduced himself and pointed his flashlight at the far end. A block of clear blue ice shone in the dim light. Inside the ice, a pure white skeletal body was coiled.
-"I'll be damn" he exclaimed "Is still there."
He crawled inside and began to cut the ice with his pickaxe. The creature inside was in fact the same shape as the ones in the sculpture. Eyeless, long headed and clawed monsters. "What the fuck are those?" he thought.
Since he had joined the Stargazer program, Dr. Aleksei was aware there was extraterrestrial life out there, and some of those things were really ugly, but the thing encapsulated in the ice was something out of a nightmare, he could not give it any slightly human feature that made him think it was smart, or that he could communicate with it or even train it like an animal.
-"Need a tissue sample" his pickaxe reached the arm of the creature. Aleksei pulled a syringe and pinched the creature's skin. A pressurized jet of a yellowish liquid sprouted from the puncture, when it touched the ground, hissed and smoke rose where the liquid reacted with the stone.
-"What the hell? Acid?" Aleksei was surprised, so much that he did not see how the creature's arm began to move and the ice around it cracked. A cold, clawed hand gripped Aleksei's arm and he turned, only to see the ice block breaks and the creature inside came back to life, in stasis after thousands of years. He screamed briefly just before a long tail cut his neck in a sweep, the recently revived creature let out a triumphant screech.
- o -
The guard who had been outside the crevasse heard a blood-chilling cry coming from the cave and called Dr. Aleksei. He obtained another screech as answer. Not knowing what the hell what was happening he raised his rifle towards the opening. A fast white blur came from it and threw him on his back, the creature was over him and he couldn't move. He managed to fire the rifle without hitting it and the last thing he saw were the pink, teeth-filled gums of the creature extending out of its mouth into his face.
-"Those were shots" Gunther, the man setting the charges said, after hearing fire arms noise coming from inside the tomb. He was holding the detonator and the charges were set, he ordered the other two to investigate.
The two disappeared in the corridor's darkness and after a few seconds, screams and gunfire filled the Atrium, followed by inhuman screeches and shrieks. Gunter had a vague idea what Stargazer was after; he had heard crazy stories but never believed them. He started to wonder if those were truth, and something was hunting them in the darkness of the Temple.
Holding his 9 mm pistol in one hand and the detonator in the other, he faced the dark opening of the temple. He heard sounds of steps and grunts, something was coming. He aimed the pistol towards the dark. A white figure, pale as a ghost appeared on his field of view, at first appeared humanoid in shape but it was crouching on four, on its mouth, it had the severed arm of one of the guards.
The creature had no eyes but Gunther was sure it was looking him while emitted a series of short snorts. The creature dropped the arm and showed him its pointed fangs. Gunther screamed and then the creature launched itself at the man, biting him on the chest; the dying man screamed and by pure reflex, pressed the detonator.
The charges detonated and the tunnels filled with fire, the creature screeched as it was consumed and then the whole Temple collapsed, crushing any remains. Outside, Dr. Konrad Volkov saw how the explosion generated an avalanche which destroyed the west side of the mountain, and with it, the Temple and construction site.
- o -
A/N: Ok, that was short, but I wanted a few horror to fill here, because there's too much adventure/docudrama. also, an insight to the future of Project Stargazer and nods to a certain extraterrestrial hunter.