Monsters Galore

[The Blade]

Just above Acanthros, a frigate came out a Hyper Drive Gate. The vessel was Vionix in design and had the name, although written in Vionix Script, Beastly written on the side.

Beastly came into orbit above the planet and let down a quintet of Morningstar Dropships. In two of the dropships there were thirty-six Vionix on a death sentence and four Vionix armed with weaponry from the Military. These four Vionix however had a strange marking in the shape of a brooch on the side of their armour. This brooch happened to be shaped like a Larimus's head, looking like a wolf but with heavily elongated ears and a ruby where they eye would've been.

The five dropships came down into a large plain and settled down with a slowly dying whine of thrusters. Everyone stepped out of the Dropships and looked around. The Four Werewolf Company veterans scanning around with their weapons for any creature that happened to look particularly dangerous. Hopefully it wouldn't take long.

[Ghost]

The Vionix found themselves on a planet filled with lush, technicolor plantlife. Plants varied in shades of primrose to violet, to cyans and royal blues and then to aqua greens and green. Flowers were in brilliant shades of hot pinks and deep blue violets. Several plants glowed under the shade.

A bush or two rustled about, small little Lizirii running about in search of nectar to drink. A few of them stopped and glanced at the new beings curiously before an adult Lizirii nudged them towards a patch of flower-bowls filled with nectar, hologram markings flashing about. A few Avians squawked about and eyed the visitors carefully. Some glanced at each other like they were deciding whether to attack or not. Others landed in trees nearby, hologram wings fading when they perched.

So far, everything seemed harmless.

[The Blade]

Every single one of the Vionix looked around at the colours and shine of the world. Their eyes glittering with things they'd never seen before and could've only dreamed of. Some of the prisoners even looked ready to escape but that urge was quenched when they caught sight of what else was coming out of the back of the Dropships.

The things coming out somewhat resembled wolves, except these things were easily more than three times larger, had long pointed ears and very long, whip like tails. Two of them were brown, one was black and the other was an orange-y colour. These were Larimi, massive lupines native to Arcanis III.

One of the Vionix soldiers hopped up onto the back of his Larimus, cybernetically enhanced, and then walked her around a bit. She sniffed at the air for a moment and then nodded slightly, as though to her rider.

"Prisoners, stay where you are, attempt to run and you will be gunned down, you are here for a reason!" The rider cried and then took his Larimus off at a run. He ran through the woods, the Lupine running at ridiculous speeds as he attempted to hunt down anything that seemed more dangerous than those silly birds that had been flitting around.

[Ghost]

Eventually, there was an area where the forest seemed to have died off. Patches of greys and grey-browns grew the further he went. IT was a wasteland. A very odd one. The creatures from before weren't in the area. At first, this looked like a completely dead area. Then a wild roar sounded, other roars followed soon after. Some creature, about 7 feet in height, charged straight towards the vionix, roaring in wild patterns. Others were further off.

The thing stampeding straight towards this Vionix had no eyes on the outside, a pair of wild spikes that wrapped around its sides, and a series of glowing marks over grey that were in the most complex pattern.

[The Blade]

To make a Veteran Werewolf Company soldier worry is no easy task but the changing scenery and fading of the colours was certainly making him worried. Even his Larimus was looking particularly edgy. "You're right girl, this place isn't too good to stay in for a long time." He whispered and petted his mount before it perked up suddenly and looked around. Then the sounds of the roars reached the rider's ears and the beast came charging out. "We've got a live one!" He cried and turned his Larimus around, bolting away from the beast and back towards the other soldiers, sending a comm to them. At one point, the beast got close and suddenly the Geiger counter in the rider's armour screamed at him this was sent off as well.

The other three riders suddenly hefted up large tranquiliser rifles and aimed them, ready to hit the Helix as it stepped out of the woods. The prisoners just sat and quaked in fear.

[Ghost]

The adult Lizirii watching her own offspring in front of the prisners looked up, hologram flash patterns changing into a series of flashes in more frequent patterns. The offspring took notice and fled with the adult lizirii. Avians above that were perched on branches squabbled in nervous tones, a few of them taking off.

The helix charged on through the greenery, snapping thin branches and trampling over roots. It bolted out, bellowing with wild roars and then lunging at the group.

[The Blade]

The soldiers readied their rifles and as soon as the Helix burst out, the first Rider jumped to the side and the Helix would take three heavy duty syringes to the flesh, pumping it full of enough sedatives to knock out a creature many times its weight and size. The people then jumped to the sides to avoid the beast if it continued running and had a chance of trampling them at all.

[Ghost]

The darts hit their marks, the beast falling.  It continuously moves about, failing to get up. But it wasn't exactly sleeping. It was more or less screaming in immense pain, spatting out a liquid that glowed exactly like its markings, aiming everywhere and anywhere.

A few more Avians flew up to avoid getting hit and screeched back at the group and helix.

[The Blade]

As the beast fell, all of the soldiers managed to jump or run out of the way of the glowing gunk coming from the beast's mouth but a few of the convicts took some of the goo over their bodies and were instantly cut loose from the rest of the group in case of contamination.

One of the soldiers then picked up a large rifle and fired a few shots into the beast's head to bring it down, they only really needed the DNA anyway.

If the beast died or fell still then a few of the convicts would go over and scrape some skin samples and bone samples from the spines to get a good amount of DNA from the beast before coming back to the soldiers.

[Ghost]

Each hole made to the hole made it roar out, more of the glowing liquid bursting out of the wounds. Eventually it was down, growling and twitching about. Something started to move within its stomach, the skin moving about here and there like something inside was struggling.

The skin was scraped off around the glowing areas and non-glowing areas to catch parts of infected and non-infected skin. The bones/spires scrapings turned into a very white color, turning brittle and breaking into shards of regular bone.

[The Blade]

After the scrapings were taken, one of the Werewolf Company soldiers noticed the movement inside the beast and his eyebrows furrowed. "Fuck, I think this bastard's pregnant." He called out to the other soldiers before walking around it and crouching down in front of its stomach. His mind was jumping to conclusions though, he had to find out if it was actually pregnant. Drawing his wavering knife, the soldier reached forwards and slowly and carefully cut a cross section, letting the blood drain away and wash over his gloves and boots. "This is gonna take forever to clean, I hope you're worth it kid." He whispered, as though talking to the infant Helix. Once the blood was away, he reached in and tore the rest of the beast open before lifting the child out and handing it over to another soldier. The soldier then stood up and looked over his blood spattered body. "Sunuva bitch, get the convicts to get blood samples."

Sure enough, they sent the prisoners forwards with large syringes to take the blood samples before returning and putting them in boxes, leaving the Helix behind. Some of the convicts however had gotten blood over unprotected flesh as well as a few of them touching the markings.

[Ghost]

"Bwaaaaah"A helix mewled out, mouth stretching open and revealing little orbs in a color similar to its markings. The spires on it had little nubs where the spikes would be when its older. Its markings weren't very large or complex, just a few lines here and there.  It was kinda cute, for something that would be a cold blooded killer later.

The poor victims who got infected found their skin ripping open in several places. Teeth growing and a tongue inside these holes. The parts that grew these mouths were no longer under their control and could only watch as these new fanged holes tore open their own host. An arm attacked the neck, and a stomach forced another to crouch over and eat his own legs. When each of the victims had eaten themselves to a point where it was impossible for the body to continue "living", they just died in the most twisted of poses. Chunks of missing flesh, little chucks and strips on the ground or in the mouths. Red fluid had dyed their skins and some died with a wide-eyed face of horror that stared at the ships.

(The infant is a conjoined twin)

[The Blade]

As soon as the victims started to turn, the Werewolf Company soldiers would just shoot each of them in the head, putting them out of their misery before putting the Helix into an incubating pod to keep it warm and alive until it could be taken back to a Vionix research center.

"This one looks different from its mother, sir." The soldier carrying the pod called out and the leader of the squad walked over and looked into the pod. Sure enough, this one seemed to be conjoined but that might prove useful.

"Interesting, we might be able to extrapolate proper data and maybe even make mechanical or semi-organic versions. This is interesting as all hell." A laugh escaped his throat and he went around, shooting every prisoner in the head before turning back to the dropships and loading the Larimi in before getting in themselves and getting decontaminated.

After that was done, the dropships would take off and bugger off to the frigate above, bringing samples and a living Helix for research.