Chapter 1
AN: Hello Readers. Thank you taking the time to stop by. Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of it's characters, that's all Stephenie Myer's department! However, I love to present new takes on our beloved characters. This is a slow burn story with lots of sexual tension...but worth the wait. Enjoy.
"Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice of what is right and what is easy." – Albus Dumbledore
I cinched my ponytail extra tight and secured my face shield into place, feeling the familiar click as it settled. Gloves up to my elbows and the thick, acid-proof apron followed, armoring me for the task ahead. As I donned my daily battle gear, a weary breath escaped my lips—a silent plea for today to yield some breakthrough. Hope teetered on the edge of my resolve, threatening to fade, yet I clung to the shreds of optimism still fluttering within me.
"Daren, lend me a hand with this, will you?" My voice was steady as I beckoned my lab partner, the gravity of our task implicit. With deliberate precision, I incised the alien creature's rubbery hide, and a startling cascade of blue and white flowed out—an alien ichor mystery in viscous form.
The sight was as mesmerizing as it was chilling, a glimpse into the mysterious physiology of a being from the stars, captured in the chaos of an interstellar raid. I delved into the extraterrestrial anatomy with a subdued fascination, my fingers navigating the slick, enigmatic tissues.
"God, that stench—it's brutal!" Daren gasped, recoiling and choking on the potent miasma.
"Focus, Daren. Keep that light steady," I shot back, my words slicing through the stench that we both desperately tried to ignore, tunnel-visioned on the alien enigma before us.
He carefully angled the beam overhead as I leaned closer to the still corpse before us—a bizarre facsimile of terrestrial fauna with a heart, lungs, but devoid of the skeletal structure we knew. Instead, its body was coated in a viscous, milky secretion—a slime that likely facilitated its silent navigation through the labyrinth of our ventilation. A ring of needle-like teeth framed the creature's circular maw, promising a gruesome end to any unfortunate prey. Above this, four unblinking eyes glinted in the artificial light, crowning this nightmarish figure, while a barbed tail hinted at an arsenal of defense, or perhaps aggression.
Delving into the anatomy of the beast, my studies had revealed a tiny, potent gland nestled in its gullet—capable of ejecting a vicious toxin. These creatures, it seemed, were not merely accidents of nature, but perhaps engineered entities, groomed for conflict and conquest.
"Be careful!" The words erupted from my mouth sharp and urgent, echoing against the dull metallic walls. "Don't touch that!"
Daren's hand jerked back as though electrified, and he stumbled, barely catching himself against the rough edge of the nearby table. He fixed me with wide, startled eyes. "God, you nearly gave me a heart attack," he stammered, his usual composure dissolving into a mix of irritation and fear.
I nodded solemnly, my gaze lingering on the delicate black gland I had delicately extracted from the enigmatic creature. "That was the point," I admitted, my tone steady but not unkind. "This gland is steeped in toxins. Should it graze your skin, it'd sear through flesh as if it were mere paper in a bonfire."
Daren swallowed hard, the usual playful glint in his eyes replaced by the sobering reality of our situation. "What do you need from me?"
"Just hold the light steady," I instructed, offering him a tight-lipped, reassuring smile. "Your hands are far more valuable to us unharmed. Besides, these beings harbor secrets far beyond our comprehension. Until we decipher them, caution is our steadfast companion." Gripping the light with newfound respect, Daren nodded silently, his eager mind already dancing with questions and theories, his earlier fright channeled into the thrill of discovery that lay ahead.
"Who needs knowledge anyway? I say we just shoot those bastards."
"Yeah," I responded with a hint of sarcasm, "shoot them. But it's also important to study them. They-"
"We have enough firepower to obliterate them from the sky. Kill them all. Then, there's no need for studying. This is our planet, and nothing reminds them of that better than blowing them sky high."
His Adam's apple bobbed with anxious anticipation.
I continued. "We turn to science because it's our beacon in these dark times. If we decode the secrets of these creatures, we can annihilate them, halt their spread, and defend our survival. Their toll has been steep, the dead speak to that. Our firearms alone are relics of a naive hope."
Slowly, Daren moistened his lips. "Well…that's precisely why I'm here, illuminating your work, Dr. Swan. Rumor has it, you're the last genius we have within the sanctuary of our final stronghold."
A sorrowful smile touched my lips as I averted my gaze. "Genius? No. I'm just another person longing for an end to this carnage. I'm just as exhausted as everyone else. Drained by the constant dance with death, and the sea of lifeless eyes. And these... these monsters, seem to laugh in the face of our desperation."
"But, I mean... that experimental smoke bomb you crafted? It disoriented them, didn't it?" He fumbled for words that might sow seeds of hope in the barren fields of my despair.
A weary sigh escaped me. "It's merely a clever parlor trick at best. It clouds their senses, sure, but their hearts still beat with that same, terrifying purpose afterward. It's nothing more than borrowed time."
Daren arched an eyebrow, a playful challenge. "Hey, 'borrowed time' might just be the currency we need. Don't undersell your contributions, Dr. Swan."
Sweat dripped from my brow, rivulets lost amidst the damp fabric of my shirt. I ran an arm across my forehead, an inadequate reprieve, and turned to Daren with desperation clouding my gaze. "You don't get it, Daren. It's been a relentless three-year-long battle—day and night consumed by this research, confined within these oppressive walls. Outside life... the vibrant chaos of the world... it's become alien to me. And for what? Nothing to show but dead ends and mounting questions. It's as though those creatures were precisely engineered, and bestowed upon our world with just one purpose—to eradicate us. They're not just beastly; they're... they're like frenzied demons jacked up on some cosmic steroids, ravaging indiscriminately, wielding an eerie knowledge of our defenses. They pinpoint our sanctuaries, infiltrate with a terrifying grace, and strangle our supports of hope, like snuffing out breaths in a sealed room."
Pent-up frustration surged within me, escaping in short, ragged breaths. Daren's placating hand, light on my shoulder, did little. "Easy there. You're gonna blow a fuse. Should I find a paper bag, or do you need something stronger to help you breathe?"
A hollow laugh escaped me, tinged with bitterness. I shook off his touch. "Daren, it's like battling phantoms. The creature we captured met its end beneath a tank's unforgiving weight, and that victory, if you could even call it that—grossly insignificant."
He raised an eyebrow in mock horror. "And here I was thinking it couldn't get any grimmer."
"It's far worse. Those... things, they're harbingers. They are just pawns. First-wave soldiers launched by a presence we can only speculate about. I'm convinced they're not the apex predators in this equation."
Daren exhaled, skepticism lacing his tone like an insidious undercurrent. "You're theorizing that there are more deadly creatures after us? More human like creatures? Like…some extraterrestrial puppeteer using these small monstrosities as their attack hounds?"
"Perhaps. I can't say with certainty. Sometimes I think I'd trade my soul for just a glimpse of the true orchestrators behind this invasion."
"You say that as if there truly are other more power creatures. But tangible proof, my friend—where is it? This labyrinthine hypothesis of yours—could it not be earthly in origin? Perhaps these creatures are an abomination birthed in some earthly lab."
I hesitated. "It's not a mere guess. There was a sighting—a report. Not of these canine aberrations, but of something... someone. They were bipedal, intelligent—it emerged from the very guts of our planet, sowed chaos, then vanished into the depths before the dust could even settle."
Daren's voice took on a hardened edge. "Then why the hell aren't we barricading the underground? You'd think that after such an encounter we'd do everything to..."
"It slipped away. It was gone before we could even raise our weapons," I said, voice barely above a whisper.
"And you still cling to the idea of an interstellar origin?" Daren's smirk showed he found amusement in my distress. "Maybe they aren't extraterrestrial. Why isn't anyone considering the likelihood of subterranean beings? Are we truly alone on the surface, or do these... creatures and their bipedal counterparts share our world, lurking in depths we've yet to plumb?" His questions hung in the thick air, a testament to the mystery consuming our lives, feeding our nightmares. And as silence claimed the space between us, the chilling realization simmered within—the true battle against this unknown enemy had only just begun.
Disbelief clouded my features as I shook my head. "It's nowhere near that straightforward. From what I've pieced together, these canine-like entities wither in the breath of our world. They aren't built to endure the open air for long stretches, which likely explains their subterranean retreats," I mused, the cogs of my theory clicking into place.
Intrigue laced Daren's features as he leaned in closer. "And what findings led you to this conclusion?"
A chill ran down my spine as I recounted, "We managed to ensnare one—a ruthless struggle in steel jaws. It writhed and snarled for its freedom, but then... nothing. Its fight simply ceased. Post-mortem revealed the true killer: its lungs had shredded like wet paper, its bloodstream a desperate abyss for oxygen. This creature had suffocated; the weight of our atmosphere too great a burden to bear."
His laugh, tinged with irony, cut through the tension. "So, our very air is noxious to them?"
"It might be more complex," I countered, the weight of uncertainty pressing on my words. "Air is clearly a factor. But there's something about light too. The creature recoiled as if pained. Yet, what these others bipedal creatures crave—more formidable, more deadly—I'm at a loss."
His curiosity sharpened. "More deadly?" I avoided his gaze, lowering my voice as if the walls had ears.
"Well. Put it this way. Just one decimated an entire naval battalion. Left nothing behind but silence and wreckage. A cold, calculated eradication."
"Just one? One creature laid waste to our mightiest vessels? Are you certain no others joined it?"
"There were no others," I insisted, a clandestine chill in my whisper. "The surveillance—illicitly obtained—showed just a blur, a specter of death moving faster than sight." I paused, letting the magnitude of our predicament hang between us.
Perplexed, he questioned, "Did it seize anything? Weapons, resources?"
"Nothing. It left the vessels untouched—save for the void of life it left in its wake," I replied, the image haunting me.
He shivered, voicing the dread we all felt. "It defies comprehension. What could they possibly want?" his whisper barely reached my ears.
I shook my head, a gesture of shared ignorance. "That's the enigma at the heart of all this. It's an unknown that haunts our every move."
Again, silence fell, heavy and thoughtful. After a long moment, Daren found his voice again. "If they can eradicate us with such ease, what's their end game? Why not strike with finality?"
I sighed, feeling the burden of our grim reality. "Answers continue to elude us. My only recourse is to delve deeper, to seek out the Achilles' heel of these phantoms. Yet, I'm still unsure if what we seek even exists."
AN: There you have it. First chapter down. Reviews welcomed. Thanks.