Chapter 1 - Snakes, why did it have to be snakes?
"Dr. Vahlen," a scientist asked, shakily , "you do realise what you've got here?"
"Yes," the German replied, "this could be the breakthrough we need, if this specimen can provide us with adequate data on viper physiology, it could prove to be invaluable to the resistance effort"
At that point, the door to the sterile laboratory hissed open to reveal a tall, wide-shouldered figure standing there with their arms crossed atop a tactical harness.
"Vahlen," the figure asked in a low, gruff voice, "you mind telling me why you've brought this god-forsaken thing back here? It's making the guys nervous"
"Fear not, Major," Vahlen replied, without looking away from the specimen, "it would appear that this creature, while perfectly healthy physically, is totally brain dead, the structure we found it in seems to be the only thing keeping it 's body alive."
"Well that's a real comfort." Major Matt Fisher muttered, still not convinced and with good reason too. He was in charge of what was left of Dr. Vahlen's security detail. Currently, he was looking at the large tubular stasis chamber that housed Dr. Vahlen's latest fascination. At first glance, the stasis chamber contained nothing but a gelatinous, green substance that undulated of its own accord, however upon closer inspection, it was clear that there was…. Something within the murky depths, slowly twitching, writhing, seemingly beyond the control of a mind. This is what Vahlen was interested in.
Suddenly, one of the monitors flashed into life, along with an alarm. Quickly, Vahlen turned round to look at what was the cause of the problem, she feared that the containment system had failed and she was about to lose her subject, but as she looked at the monitors, "mein gott," she gasped, as the readings showed increasing brain activity.
"Major Fisher" she hurriedly said, "change of plan, I need you to prepare an…. enclosure…"
Sargent Darren McNab was not happy. Major Fisher had just informed him that it was now his responsibility to ensure that the enclosure that had been built was in no way 'compromised'. There had been endless speculation as to what the enclosure was actually meant for, the most popular running theory was that Dr. Vahlen was once more trying to capture live specimens. Vahlen remained adamant that this was not the case, her time at XCOM had provided enough insight into alien physiology, she claimed.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, Darren carried on with his inspection of the enclosure. It was built within the natural cave system that made up the entirity of their set up, hidden deep within a small rocky outcrop just off Ascension Island. Out of the way of ADVENT, it had provided Vahlen and her team with a secluded and secure area to carry on the fight against the invaders, despite being separated from Central and Chief Engineer Shen. Right now, the vast majority of the cave was filled with prefabricated huts and converted shipping containers in order to serve the scientists and engineers along with the small contingent of armed personnel that managed to stay together, even after the chaos that was the evacuation from the original XCOM base.
What concerned Darren currently was the giant cavern at the very back of the cave that housed the small contingent. Surrounded in 3 sides by sheer rock faces with a small hole in the rocky ceiling providing a lot of natural light. The fourth side, the one open to the rest of the cave, was covered by an advanced variation of plexi-glass, which was meant to ensure that whatever Vahlen had planned on putting in there would definitely stay in there. Or so the engineers claimed.
Walking across the giant plexi-glass wall for what seemed like the 50th time, he sighed, this was pretty dull when compared to what he was used to. He was used to laying down covering fire to draw ADVENT away from the engineers or scavengers, not stand around and look at some bloody glass. The one upside to an assignment like this was that he could listen to his music, that was nice, something to break up the mundane without actually distracting himself too much from what he was supposed to be doing. Shifting his SCAR Assault Rifle in his grip, he moved on once more, his pre-war iPod flipping over to a new song.
About half an hour later, once he had reported that the enclosure was secure, he was whistling along to "A is for Action" by IMA Robot, when a sudden surge of engineers rushed past him, wondering what was up he grabbed one of them to ask what was going on.
"Oh ye 'avn't 'eard?" The Scottish engineer said, "Vahlen's gon and gotten 'erself a fooking snake!"
Well shit.
Dennis awoke from his slumber feeling extremely well rested, more so than he had been recently, this whole Coronavirus lockdown situation had really thrown off his sleeping cycle. Strecting his lanky arms to their full length, he let out a satisfied groan, his voice sounding somewhat raspier than usual, he must've been snoring heavily the night before making his throat sore. Opening his eyes, he realised very quickly that the rocky roof with a small hole in the centre was, in fact, not his bedroom roof and that he was no longer in his bedroom. Sitting up quickly, the first thing he noticed was the giant wall of glass that separated him from the rest of the cave, it was huge, easily 10 meters tall or more.
Beyond the glass, he saw a group of people, most were wearing white lab coats with what looked like tablets, the others in the group had very obviously military style harnesses and vests along with their imposing black or tan rifles. All of them looked wide-eyed and fearful of... something. Dennis turned around to see what they were staring at, all he saw was the bare stone wall. Half turning back in confusion, he caught sight of his left hand and arm that was supporting his body weight. The grey scales, simliar in colour to the rock beneath him, that adorned his arm along with the long, curved claws that were where his finger nails should have been was not what he expected to see.
Begining to panic, Dennis attempted to stand up, but found that his legs would not cooperate. Looking down the length of his body, he saw a much more substantial change compared to his arms. His legs were gone, replaced with a long tail that resembled that of a snake's. Hissing in suprise, Dennis caught sight of a forked tongue at the centre of his vision. At this point, he began to hyperventilate, shakily, he made it to an upright position, unsure of his balance on his new coils. Looking down at his hands and body, then looking back up at the figures beyond the glass, his now reptillian face showed the horror he was feeling.
"What in the fuck" was all he could quietly rasp out...
A/N: Hey guys, this is the first peice of writing I've ever uploaded on this site so it may not be the best quality in the world but that is what practice is for! If you spot any mistakes please let me know, I mostly wrote this in-between matches of Call of Duty... any comments or criticism is greatly appreciated!