Wither: Prelude to Dies Irae
In ages past, man has come to know the inevitablility of death. One's consciousness does not simply float away during death, the brain is active, seeking above all else a way out. For 500,000 years, humanity searched fruitlessly for a way to extend their lives. Now, we have the answer.
Created in 2605, the Y.O.U.T.H program was formed to study and bring about rapid change in the formally dead field of Psychoanalytics and memory restoration. At first, the lack of FTL bought with it changes. How to best transport long dead specimens to safer planets.
A crew of six could survive for decades off planet thanks to the ingenuity of the bioengineers and mechanics involved in the creation of the pods needed for delivery. Food was injected, waste was disposed of via portal use, sent to a nearby star to be burned.
"The Hyperdive is ready" said Maria, A young woman, slender in appearance, with flowing red hair and a fair complexion. She floated over to the panel and pushed a series of keys, before the panel in front of her lit up.
"Hello, I am the YOUTH mainframe, how can i help?" came an all too familiar voice.
"We need power sent to the Hyperdrive, the motivater is going bad. Can you send units to repair it?" Maria asked, a wrinkle beginning to ruin her perfect face.
"One moment" came the reply.
One moment seems like an hour, an hour seems like an eternity thought Jonas, her crewmate.
A former Yale graduate, back when earth was still thriving and long before humanity left for the stars, he excelled in engineering and Mathematics, String theory and earned his PHD at 24 years old. Now he was onboard the spaceship Excalibur and ready for a new adventure.
"Come on you piece of crap!" cried Maria in a fit of annoyance. The old computer sputtered and cranked as it spit out the response that made her smash her fists into the wall:
"more memory needed"
"I told the grand council we should've junked this fossil. The T1407's are obsolete in this day and age, even the other colonies won't use them. Why? Why do i get stuck with the most Fucked up shit!" Maria yelled at no one in particular.
Jonas set aside his tools and bought up a monitor.
"Call Wendy" he said.
"Calling...coordinate 44 west, 82 east...delta Quadrant. Have a nice day"
The line rung for a few minutes, then someone picked up.
"What is it? Don't tell me you and Maria are stuck again, i just added a new memory stick"
"It ran out, where is the R16 dual drive?"
"Council seized em, they're in lockup. something about a plague. Anyway, we have a new mission. Command has picked up an SOS. You guys remember Apollo?"
Maria stopped, her entire body was shaking from fear. "No...don't say anything more. Jonas, cut communications"
"Bu-"
"NOW!"
The line went dead.
Jonas looked at Maria with a quizzical expression. She sat down and when she had composed herself out of her quivering state, she spoke:
"I worked on that Death trap. I won't speak of it to anyone except you. I trust you to not tell anyone else. Sevastopol Station was a hellhole but that's not why i won't go back. The company wanted to bring back a class 4 alien for study. We were all aware of the Nostromo incident. So, why did i go? Was it money? a promotion? No, we lived in a one room shack, with no running water and barely any heat. My kids starved to death! So i went. In two weeks time, we met up with the Marshalls, but kept silent. Another group arrived, Marlow and his crew. Dude seemed legit so we hooked up with them and that's when shit got bad"
She paused, drawing a shaky breath.
"We stumbled upon corpses over time. Little roaches or something crawling out of the bodies. I spotted another, bigger than the rest, I think it was the Matriarch. I tried to warn the marshals but the dumb pricks wouldn't listen. The stupid fucker called a meeting and some stupid asshat fired a gun. The halls were deadly quiet...Till she arrived"
Jonas was confused.
"Amanda Ripley, Daughter of the legendary Ellen Ripley. We left that hellhole three days before she arrived, scavenging what suits we could from KG348. It got Mills, tore him to shreds before turning it's attention to my other friends. Halfway out, John's suit failed, the thing had torn a hole. He looked like a popped sausage, but i was out. Lewis immediately set a course for earth, but something killed him in his sleep. It's in the mess hall, under a sheet of glass. Tell Wendy to go fuck herself, i'm not going back there"
The ship was silent, save for the beeping of machines. Maria got up and checked the coordinates.
"we're clear of obstruction...setting a course for the Shawl Relay. Locked"
Three hours later, the ship picked up another signal
"Can anyone hear me, I'm nearly out of air. Hello? Repeat, this is Amanda Ripley, is anyone there?"
Maria opened the door and put on her EVA suit.
Ripley woke up in the ship, with no recollection of the prior events.
"easy" said Maria, offering her a blue liquid.
"It's synthetic but it should hold you. Not much to be found out here. I'm Maria"
"Ripley, what is a ship doing so close to the Sol system?"
Maria didn't answer, but Ripley guessed her purpose
"you too? How long were you working for them?" she asked.
"I was never officially a member. One of my coworkers, perhaps she might still be alive? Are you aware of Taylor?"
"She didn't make it. I'm the only one left."
Maria walked up to the pilot seat and stared at the approaching planet
"It's been so long. I thought the Marker was a myth. Weyland Yutani is gone but this.., this is a new Era. I have so much to show you Amanda, I have a new purpose among these things. I know you won't understand, few people do, but we have a chance..Finally Convergence can begin"
Amanda's eyes shot open as the psychotic, smiling Maria began changing. Her jaw exploded outward as her face separated into 4 pieces, each behind it, a row of sharp teeth. She lunged at Amanda.
"NO! get away!" Amanda screamed. In her desperation, she sliced Maria to bits with a hastily assembled Plasma Cutter. Her arm lanced the panel before she expired.
The ship controls were damaged and the pod began to fall into low orbit.
"Come on!" Amanda groaned, pulling with all her might. The pod narrowly avoid the ground and smashed into a nearby building. Amanda lost consciousness.
"This is Isaac, broadcasting on all channels. Is anyone alive? Repeat, this is Isaac"
feeling slowly came back to Amanda as she regained breath in her body. The compartment in front of her was smashed to pieces and the door was jammed shut. She picked up the radio.
"Mayday, Mayday, this is Amanda Ripley. I am in a crashed pod due south of the nearest marker. Coordinates to follow: 55 east, Latitude 24 west, Longitude 23 north, over?"
No response for a good hour.
"fuck!" Amanda said as she sat down. The pod lurched and groaned as something began moving it. The radio came to life as the voice began relaying instructions:
"You are on the Planet Taflon 7. We don't know much about it. The air is highly toxic to human lungs, do you have EVA, over?"
Amanda scavenged the pod and found one very old suit with, as luck would have it, a fully filled oxygen meter.
"Put it on, then follow these coordinates...and hurry. The Host is coming. If it sees you, you are dead. With it are two Ubermorphs that we've classified as Helios and Hermes. Run if you have to. Reinforcements aren't coming. This whole planet is a black site. We are in a nearby bunker, for gods sake hurry!"
Amanda donned the EVA suit and stepped out of the pod.