3 days into the Annex I operation, and Yaeko was starting to lose her mind. If the generally oppressive atmosphere and giant killer roaches weren't enough, she and Alex, of all people, were assigned to keep a lookout for the evac unit for a night. It had been two days since the hectic first day of the expedition, and no terraformers had been in sight since then, but that absence just made the prospect of a sudden future attack all the more terrifying.
She stopped thinking about her own fears long enough to actually keep a lookout with the help of a pair of binoculars. Alex, meanwhile, was using the help of his mosaic organ to keep a literal bird's eye view on the situation. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't at least a bit jealous.
When Alex next came around in his patrol, Yaeko waved him over, asking after an exaggerated yawn, "Why do we have to do this, of all people?"
Alex scanned the area briefly, before returning his gaze to the girl before him with a shrug. "Someone has to, I guess. And I'd rather not tell Michelle 'no' and get on her bad side."
Yaeko tried to form a rebuttal for a scant few seconds, before exhaling a defeated sigh. "Yeah, you're right," she admitted. She then turned away from him, looking into the night sky, and continued, "Still, what are the chances of those… things showing up tonight? We haven't seen any for a few days, and there's no sign of–"
A loud crash from the evac unit interrupted her statement, in the process nearly causing her to shriek, though she managed to cover her mouth before making too much noise. Alex rolled his eyes and said, "You had to jinx it," though the grin in his voice was evident.
Yaeko spun on her heel and was about to rebut, but she instead saw Alex rushing to the origin of the noise. After but a second's hesitation, she followed after him, one of her hands lightly gripping the drug she used to transform.
She quickly caught up to her male companion, who was peering around a corner, into a newly-made entrance into the evac unit. She did likewise, and the first thing she noticed was the giant insect entity rifling through the contents of the unit.
Before she could say anything in response to Alex, he whispered, "Let's just wait and see what it wants." He turned his head to her slightly before continuing, "These things usually aren't this covert."
Yaeko nodded, and they continued to watch it for a while. For being a giant walking death organism, the terraformer did remarkably little; it contented itself with looking through drawers for a long while. Eventually, though, it found what it was looking for; Alex noticed the change in its body language instantly, and tensed up.
The roach reached into the drawer and pulled out a compact, round object. Alex faintly made out what it was, and whispered to himself, "A CD?"
Yaeko looked to him for clarification, but both of them were taken aback by the terraformer's sudden burst of speed as it exited the evac unit. A cold sweat overtook them both with the realization of how they were taken off guard so easily, but Alex broke the quiet tension by asking Yaeko, "Why would it need that CD?"
Yaeko looked in the direction the terraformer took off in, then back to Alex. She gave an uneasy shrug and replied, "Do we even know what was on it?"
Alex started to shake his head, then stopped, and his eyes widened. Yaeko took note of the change in his demeanor, he hurried to the main area of the evac unit, where most of the others in the unit were resting. There, he shook awake the sleeping Marcos, shushing him as he groggily asked him countless inane questions.
Yaeko entered as Marcos fully woke up, and his gaze shifted between her and Alex, who was right at his side. He finally settled on looking at Alex, asking him in a more-than-annoyed whisper, "Why'd you wake me up?"
Alex's reply was a hushed whisper of, "Yaeko and I need to go check something really important. I need you to keep watch until we get back."
Once more, Marcos's gaze moved back and forth, this time accompanied by a growing, sly grin. Alex and Yaeko recognized his intent instantly; a blush crept over the latter's face, and the former smacked the blond upside the head before he could make any smart remarks. With a small grunt, he finally replied, "Yeah, yeah, I got your back."
Alex nodded to his then-standing friend and started to make his way out of the evac unit, dragging a confused Yaeko along. When he was still just within the earshot of a whisper, he told Marcos, "And don't let anyone else know."
Alex saw Marcos give a casual wave of his hand in reply, and with that, he dragged Yaeko along for their long journey.
At the time, Alex thought his idea of bringing Yaeko along was sound. He thought that they would work better together in pursuing the terraformer, and if they failed to resecure the CD, he wouldn't be the only one to blame.
After he had followed the insect for a while, he pondered the notion that perhaps he could've executed that idea more gracefully. Not only did he have to deal with carrying her while flying and pursuing the perpetrator, but not explaining a thing about his fears before departing was not the best of his ideas.
"Why did you take me along?" asked Yaeko, getting herself as comfortable as she could atop Alex's back, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"In case this thing has friends," replied Alex.
A pause.
"Why didn't you take someone else along?" asked Yaeko, trying and failing to see the terraformer from their high vantage point.
"I didn't want to worry them in case this turned out to be no big deal," replied Alex, tracking the terraformer without needing to exert any particular effort.
Another pause.
"Why are we going after it at all?" asked Yaeko.
"Because we don't know what was on that CD; it could've been some vital data," replied Alex.
One final pause.
"You don't seem very concerned about how high up we are," noted Alex.
"I've flown with you before; it's not that big a deal anymore," replied Yaeko, shrugging as best she could while still holding on.
Their game of 20 questions was cut tragically short when Alex noticed the terraformer jump into a large crater. The crater was too deep for him to make out its contents, and so he began descending for a better vantage point. The sudden descent elicited a yell of alarm from Yaeko, prompting Alex to ask with a smirk, "I thought you were used to it?"
"Not when you nosedive like that!" Yaeko retorted in the angriest whisper imaginable. Her fuming distracted her entirely for the rest of the descent, and the two of them touched down a few meters from the crater's edge.
Yaeko let go of Alex and took a step away from the crater's edge, while he stepped forward and peered into the crater. She became aware of the fact that she still had a pair of binoculars buried deep within her coat shortly before Alex waved her over.
She stepped in line with him and stared down into the crater through the binoculars, but what she saw shocked her so that she nearly dropped them on the spot.
The crater was packed with the insects; there were likely thousands of them. The quantity of them was so great that the slightest movement of one forced two or three others aside, despite the massiveness of their locale. Their eyes looked every which way, and Yaeko's heart nearly stopped when she locked eyes with one, even if it only spared her a passing glance.
Her demeanor pale, she turned to Alex and asked, while badly trying to hide her panic, "What are we supposed to do about this?"
Alex sighed and shook his head, saying to nobody in particular, "There's no way we can get that CD now."
Although shakily, Yaeko took another look into the crater, and it was only then that she noticed a peculiar structure located near its center. She recognized it, but couldn't figure out why it would be there, let alone on Mars at all.
The main section of the structure was an elevated, wooden platform, with stairs leading up to it on two side and its sides adorned with various graphics. Atop the platform was a series of interconnected steel beams, which shone lights of various colors down onto the platform.
"What would a stage be doing here?" she asked, garnering Alex's attention once more. In turn, he focused on the stage and noticed something else entirely right behind it.
"Yaeko, look beyond the stage!" he told her, and she complied. She gasped when she saw the very same terraformer that was at the evac unit, the CD clenched in one of its hands. It slid the CD into a device too small for her to see in detail, then disappeared into the mob once more.
Alex and Yaeko looked at each other, then back at the device. Independently, they began to ponder the feasibility of extracting the CD and escaping relatively unscathed.
Their train of thoughts derailed simultaneously when a continuous, drawn out sound emanated from the depths of the crater. Although it took them awhile to realize it, the two soon realized the sound was some sort of chant coming from the throng of terraformers. What was more, the chant was almost rhythmical, as if they were cheering for something.
The very idea caused both Alex and Yaeko to shudder before they noticed something else strange; a group of five terraformers had lined up on the stage last they checked. Accompanying their appearance was the start of some music. Both of them were quick to realize two things: that the music was coming from the machine the organism had put the CD into, and that the coveted CD they had pursued so fervently, and had panicked so much over, was just a music album.
The drop in both of their expressions was immediate, but their simultaneous sighs of annoyance were drowned out by the music suddenly becoming much louder. The music in question was vapid pop music that both Alex and Yaeko were sure they'd heard millions of times before, though the lyrics were slightly different than they remembered.
Their pondering was quickly replaced with horror when they were able to clearly make out some of the lyrics.
" …Johj ji jo ji jojijohj… "
"Oh Jesus Christ, they're singing," Alex uttered, gaping down at the now-singing and dancing group of creatures on stage.
Yaeko started shivering uncontrollably, clamping her hands over her ears. "This isn't happening this isn't happening this isn't happening," she repeated, on the verge of tears.
"Yaeko!" Alex cried, grabbing one of her hands off of her ears. "We can't let this crime against nature progress any further! We need to end this here!"
Yaeko nodded, vaguely aware of what he had said, even though the abomination emanating from the crater drowned out most other sound. She reached into her coat and pulled out one of Alex's specialized baseballs, handing it to him. "Sorry, I only have one on me."
"One is all I need!" he declared, snatching it and taking a dose of his medicine. His transformation renewed, he yelled, "Stand back!" as he took a pitcher's position.
Yaeko did so, and Alex closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. The sound overtook him once more, despite all of his best attempts to ignore it.
" …Joh-ji, joh-ji, joh-ji, johj… "
Yaeko looked to Alex, hoping for him to end it all in one fell swoop.
His eyes shot open, and with a cry, "All of you, go to hell!" he threw the ball.
The Terraformers were the premier boy band of Mars, and it had been that way since their inception. They had suffered many hardships, both due to the pressures of performing and due to internal strife.
But they had managed to put all that aside, at least for the moment. For they had managed to score a gig in Nondescript Martian Crater #712, and it was slated to be the biggest show of their lives. They all toiled, individually and as a group, to do their very best, both for themselves and all their adoring fans.
It had paid off. They loved it. Their fans loved it. Everything was going swimmingly.
Until a baseball embedded itself in the face of their lead member and nearly took its head clean off.
Then the baseball exploded, taking out all the members, the entire stage, and a few unfortunate fans in one fell swoop.
Chaos ensued amongst the crowd.
Marcos had been remarkably bored during his entire time as a watchman. He'd always thought he was a pretty interesting guy, and accordingly that those inhuman monsters would flock to him; apparently, none of those inhuman monsters agreed. This left him time to ponder not much of anything, though he was finally relieved of his post when he noticed Alex flying toward the evac unit, still a while before dawn. Alex touched down but a few feet away, Yaeko in tow, and Marcos was quick to approach them.
"Hey, you have no idea how bored I was," he said, raising his fist for a fist bump. Alex eventually acquiesced, though Marcos noticed that his friend wasn't entirely paying attention to him. "Hello? Earth to Alex?"
"Yeah, sorry," he replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Just got distracted."
Marcos turned to Yaeko for corroboration, and after a second's delay, she nodded dumbly in agreement. He waved it off and asked, "So, how'd that little excursion go, you two?"
"Don't ask," they retorted simultaneously, and as if on cue, they both retreated into the evac unit. Marcos could only stare after them, not entirely sure what could have possibly caused that reaction.
Most of the Nippo-American Squad was either confused, horrified, or rather peeved when they awoke to a giant hole in the rear of the evac unit. Michelle, in particular, interrogated Alex and Yaeko at length about the hole. Though neither could give her a suitable excuse for its existence, she eventually decided that the lack of casualties made it not worth worrying about. At least for the moment.
Over the course of the following day, the evac unit encountered the very same crater where Alex and Yaeko had experienced true horror. Despite their insistence to ignore it entirely, most of the rest of the squad were quick to point out the masses of terraformers within it; every single one of them were unmoving, and almost seemed to be grieving over something. The squad was quick to capture as many as it possibly could.
Nobody else ever did find out what Alex and Yaeko had done that night; Marcos tried to start rumors of lascivious escapades between the two. They both would always quickly rebut him, and nobody ever believed him anyway, but at the same time, most were quick to notice that whatever they had experienced, it had made them ever so slightly closer.