Space.
The final frontier for humanity, the near-infinite black realm full of stars and suns, a world of mystery and wonder to explore.
And somewhere far from the planet Earth, a space station floated in the void of the cosmos. Every passing minute, the station would flash a different color. Red, blue, orange, yellow. For many rotating suns and moons, it had drifted harmlessly among the stars, bouncing from the gravitational pull of one planet to another.
On board, within it's mechanical halls, an unearthly crew of beings maintained the station's powers. Far from human, they possessed a degree of humanity and sentience. Each of them were still capable of expressing human emotion, but were all focused on the given task at hand.
In a corridor full of blinking lights, a semi-limbless yellow creature with a clear-grey eye visor walked past a dark-orange creature similar to it. The crewmember nodded to it's comrade, the other crewmember nodded back. And then, they were on their way. The yellow crewmember flipped a switch and a light dimmed, then a machine beeped and a yellow light filled the hall.
Elsewhere, in another chamber, a door opened and someone walked into the sector filled with beeping machinery and more blinking lights. Taller than the space station's operators, the person was human and was female with a shapely figure, brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and brown eyes.
Lara Croft, British archeologist, surveyed the room with a hand on her hip. She'd been here for a few days, having volunteered when she found a representative of the station asking for assistance.
It had been sometime since her last adventure and nothing major had occurred since that day, until now. It would be a while before she returned home, to the coziness of her mansion. Until then, she had her job to do. Lara's eyes moved left and right, then she walked to the nearby lever and flipped it. She then flipped another lever, another light clicked, and then a machine let off another beep.
'So far, so good.' Lara thought.
Just then, the lights shut off and a coldness filled the room. Lara shivered as she looked around blindly in the darkness, she could hear a faint hum. Then a light turned on and warmth returned. But just then, an alarm blared.
"ALERT, ALERT! A BODY HAS BEEN FOUND! CREW MEMBER #15 HAS BEEN FOUND DEAD!" A voice buzzed on the loudspeaker.
Lara groaned with frustration. 'Bloody brilliant. After everything was smooth for the last few days, something like this comes up. Was it an accident, did someone slip over a railing and fall into an electric grid, or was there a murder?'
Just then, the lights popped and darkness filled the room again. Something thudded, Lara grabbed her pistol from her pocket. She never left home unarmed, she always brought her weapons along.
It was just in case she was attacked. It was imperative for one to bring protection while traveling.
For the last several hours since she got here, she didn't have to use it, until now. Lara wheeled around, her eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness, as she searched for any suspicious signs. Something was afoot. And she wasn't alone.
Cold spine-tingling chills ran across her spine and she gripped the handle of her gun, she saw a shadow dance on the wall as a light flickered. It looked like...
Her eyebrow raised, something thudded again. And then, something growled.
Lara turned sharply and fired off a shot, watching as a creature moved through the shadows at a fast pace. She saw the door open wide and ran out of the room, pursuing the intruder through the darkness while lights flashed. Lara ran as fast as her athletic legs could move, then the lights powered back on all the way and the thing she was chasing vanished.
And then, an alarm sounded and a red light flashed; The emergency meeting system had been activated.
'We can't miss this.' The archeologist thought.
Placing the gun back in her pocket, she ran to the lift and pressed the down button. The elevator shuddered and rolled down to the lower level of the station, the doors slid open again and Lara stepped out, turning right at a junction. She walked towards the door and placed her hand on the scanner.
"Lara Croft, volunteer." A computer buzzed.
The door rolled open and she stepped into the meeting room, seeing several crew members present. Red, white-red, orange, yellow, blue, tango, deep purple, nearly all of them.
And laying on the table was a bleeding corpse with a missing head. The body was recognizable; Cyan-Blue's body.
"It wasn't an accident." The lead red-brown crew member said, "Cyan-Blue was murdered, by a mysterious attacker, and the attacker may be posing as a crew member or a volunteer. Be on alert, the imposter may come after one of you at any point. However, who is the suspect?"
Unease accompanied the silence in the room, then every crew member muttered amongst themselves, Just then, someone heard a scratching sound and turned, seeing a lavender crew member wiping a knife with a rock. Lara looked at the crew member and he stopped his activity, looking at his fellow workers in a nervous manner.
"What?" Lavender asked.
"That behavior is sus." Red remarked with a raised brow, bewildered by the oddity.
"I don't believe I have ever seen one of us carry a knife before." Lime quipped.
"Did I just see blood on that?" Turquoise asked.
"NO! WAIT!" Someone shouted.
A dark-brown hand slapped a red button and a chute dropped down from the ceiling above the lavender crew member, a vacuum activated and he was sucked in. Seconds later, a monitor descended and the meetings attendees watched as their former comrade's body was shot out into space.
Seconds later, a light flashed and a P.S.A system buzzed, shaking a nearby loud-speaker. "LAVENDER WAS NOT THE IMPOSTER!" A computerized voice buzzed.
'Core blimey.' Lara thought.
"We'll find the true imposter." Red-Brown said, "Until then, this meeting is adjourned."
Lights flickered and before Lara could blink, the other crew members had vanished, save for Red-Brown and Deep-Purple. Red-Brown nodded to Deep-Purple, who nodded and walked towards Lara, then he pulled out a pair of goggles with a blinking light near one lens. The shapely English adventurer studied the goggles curiously, wondering what was going on.
"Identity Scanner." Deep-Purple explained, "Helps identify people. I just modified it so it can see who is an imposter and who isn't? They might be useful, Lara."
"Hope they do." She replied smoothly, "Otherwise, I'd end up being the next victim or sentenced to a space walk."
She held up the goggles and slid them on her head, adjusting them carefully over her eyes. Lara tapped the button and the lenses glowed, scanning her surroundings and the two alien crew members in the room. A text popped up with a picture of Red-Brown, saying he was the lead crew member. Then an image of Deep-Purple appeared, saying he was a real crew member.
No imposters in sight, but she knew the imposter would attack at any moment.
"Well, back to work." Red-Brown said, "Good luck catchin' the imposter whenever they turn up, wherever they turn up. Lara, I think you might be needed up on Level 3, Section C."
"Understood, RB." Lara replied, "And I'll keep alert."
She stepped away from the table and moved towards the elevator. Lara tapped the '3' button and the lift's doors closed, then the platform ascended and Lara took her time to inspect her gun to see the current number of bullets that she had after shooting at... whatever that thing was.
It had to be the imposter, in it's true form, coming for her after it had just taken down Cyan-Blue.
And they said that, in space, no one could hear you scream.
Well, in space, maybe nobody else could hear you shoot a rogue alien impersonating one of your fellow crew members.
Now that was a laugh.
However, what wasn't a laugh was that Lara had years of experience under her belt, having raided tombs, evaded countless traps and battled dangerous foes throughout her adventures. If some dangerous alien imposter thought it could get the drop on her on a space station in the vast recess of space, then the universe was underestimating the seasoned archeologist.
A pinging sound filled Lara's ears, notifying her that the elevator had reached Level 3. She stepped out of the lift and walked down the hall before taking a left at a junction, stepping into Section C and ready to take care of business here.
There were levers to be pulled, buttons to press, machinery to attend. Lights flickered on and off, a motor thrummed and something whirred in the walls. Steam filled the room, issuing from a hole in a pipe. Lara stepped towards a control console and began working the levers, then she tapped one of the buttons next to the first switch to maintain the power level.
Just then, a light in her goggles flashed wildly and a beep filled Lara's ears. A text popped up, warning her of nearby danger.
Moments later, the lights dimmed again and something thudded to the ground.
She turned around, her fingers touching the upper and lower regions of her goggles' right lens as she scanned the room. A light went out and darkness began to flood the area. Lara observed her surroundings and she gripped her pistol, the hairs on her arm stood and goose-bumps slowly cropped up.
A clanking noise made her turn, then she heard a clatter. She stared into the shadows, her hand raising with the gun as a finger wavered over the trigger. Then, something stirred in the dark and the smoke. It looked like... a crew member. However, it stared at Lara and, when it blinked, an eye flashed red.
In a millisecond, the scanner in her goggles blinked red and a text flashed, reading "IMPOSTER IDENTIFIED".
'Well, now.' The Tomb Raider thought, 'It could have attacked the others first, but it came for me. This should be interesting, eh? Here we go then, girl, let's blast 'em out to space and protect the rest of the crew.'
The alien posing as a crewmate lunged out of the shadows and Lara's ears were filled with a squelching sound as the creature shedded it's disguise, revealing the true horror beneath. The imposter's eyes glowed red and bore sharp fangs, a snake-like tongue dancing in it's mouth. It slashed at Lara with elongated hairy claws as she jumped out of the way, then it pulled out a knife.
Lara eyed the blade glinting in the shadows, the creature growled, then it lunged at Lara again. She rolled to the side and ducked behind a barrel, evading her foe's claws and the blade of it's weapon. The Star Slasher climbed over the barrel, staring at Lara with a hungry snarl.
Wherever this came from, it could shape-shift and seemed to hunt for sport. No words could describe it's hideous visage, Lara could see that the creature was one ugly market flipper.
And she wasn't letting it hurt any more crew members or anyone else.
The Slasher growled again and jumped, ready to slice up Lara. She raised her gun and pulled the trigger, the barrel exploded and the beast howled when the bullet tore through it's shoulder. It landed just an inch from Lara and she stared it down, then she threw her fist and punched it in the eye. Lara brought her gun up again, hitting it in the thorax with a well-shot bullet.
Furious howls of pain left the alien's vocal cords and the beast slashed at Lara, grazing part of her tank top. She could feel a slight sting in her side, but the monster had missed completely, leaving her somewhat safe.
One more move, it tried to attack, tried to bite. That beast was bleeding and desperate, it would not go down to a human. Lara pulled the trigger as hard as she could and the imposter's head erupted, the bullet tore through it's skull, and black blood tainted Lara's face with a slight drop rolling across the lens of her imposter-detecting goggles.
Exhausted, but victorious, Lara lowered her gun and watched as the fallen alien collapsed in a heap. But even in death, the creature emitted a sense of ugliness and it still looked dangerous. Its claws were sharp enough to tear through anything, and that knife, it still took out a crew member.
Lara dragged the Star Slasher to the nearest airlock and maintained a safe-enough distance, then she slammed a red button and the doors opened. She watched as the monster was sucked out into space, then the P.S.A system buzzed to life and the voice declared; "Imposter Eliminated, Dark-Brown was the imposter."
"Sure was." Lara nodded.
The relieved archeologist took a second to wipe the sweat and alien blood off her forehead. With the situation finally resolved, she walked down the hall to the lift, ready to report to Red-Brown about what had happened.
But little did she know that a black-and-red crew member was watching her from the shadows, staring ominously at her. And then, it scurried away...
The End(?)