Incursion Protocol

Scanning.

Determining challenge.

…

Retrieving Takeover Participants.

I jolted as some unknown force began dragging me away from the console. It was a bizarre sensation, my inner ear going haywire, trying to make sense of what was happening. After a few disorienting seconds, I realized what was going on. The station, or The System, was using anti-grav tech to move me around.

This wasn’t like being jostled in a vehicle or pushed by a strong wind. It was something completely alien. Gravity’s always constant, down is down, no matter what. But when “down” suddenly shifts three feet to the left and you start sliding, your body panics. Your brain tries to rationalize it, then it shifts again, and you’re falling, sliding, until all those tiny micro-adjustments your body uses to keep you steady fall apart.

It felt like weaponized vertigo. Normally, vertigo messes with your perception while you’re standing still, but in this case, the world actually was shifting. Everything went sideways, mentally and physically, which is how I, someone with thousands of hours of g-force training, immediately plastered the inside of my helmet with vomit.

I wrenched my helmet off, still woozy, my head spinning. My worn gloves scraped roughly against my mouth as I tried to clear away any remaining ick. As my vision stabilized, I found myself in a room that branched off the control center. Whatever equipment had been here was now shoved against the walls, leaving a wide, clear space in the middle.

A parasite was dragged into the room too, its gangly legs flailing as it tried to gain purchase in the anti-grav. This one looked different, larger, with colorful stripes etched across its body. When it finally came to a stop, it regained its footing, crouched low, and scanned the room, its eyes locking onto mine. There was more intelligence in this one. I could tell just by the way it was watching me, calculating.

"So, what?" I asked aloud, to no one in particular. "You’re gonna pit us against each other?"

I hefted the hammer in my hand, something I had inexplicably managed to hold onto during my nauseating ride into the room. “Easy. Even if you’re a little bigger than your friends.”

In response, the station flung two Dulox into the room. These ones were unmarred, the first parasite-free aliens I’d seen since the encounter on my ship. It moved one toward each of us. The parasite, as soon as its Dulox was within range, scrambled up and threw itself between the alien’s crescent points, inserting its proboscis in one sickening motion. I looked away, partly because I didn’t want to see that and partly because the other alien was being slid toward me.

I tried to raise my hammer, but my body was locked in place, frozen. Helpless, I watched the alien draw closer, a knot forming in my stomach. Something slithered up my leg, coiling around my body, until it reached my head and wrapped itself across my temples. I strained my eyes upward and watched a thin cable, translucent, filled with glittering wires and strange electrical components, snaking over my skin. Then, without warning, it struck out like a scorpion’s tail, drilling into the Dulox’s forehead.

The alien’s body went limp, barely managing to stay upright. My mouth hung open in shock at the crazy display before me, but before I could fully process what was happening, my vision began to blur and fade away.

I blinked awake, disoriented but quickly returning to my senses. A battered, yellow blood-soaked astronaut stood in front of me: me. I stared up at my own body, confusion rapidly turning to panic as I realized what had happened. My mouth, no, not my mouth, the alien’s, creaked open, and the two halves of the Dulox’s beak split apart, releasing a guttural, horrific screech.

A series of plings flitted through my mind.

You have gained multiple levels in: Dulox Language

You have gained multiple levels in: Dulox General Knowledge

“What the hell?” I screeched, my new voice harsh and grating. “This is not cool, you can’t just body-swap me into some weird crab creature!”

“It testing us,” something screeched behind me. I spun around to see the other alien: the parasite-possessed Dulox I’d momentarily forgotten about.

“System make challenge. Smooth out large difference between same level. You big, me small, host small,” it warbled, the speech clumsy and bouncing between mismatched pitches like it hadn’t quite mastered the host's vocal cords yet.

The Dulox body I currently inhabited felt completely odd. Stiff, brittle, yet somehow nimble at the same time. I stared down at my strange wrists, which split in two, revealing an unsettling arrangement of pincers, protrusions, and weird meaty bits that made up my hands. To my surprise, they were far more nimble than my human hands had ever been. The design of the Dulox’s tools and rifles suddenly made sense.

Unlike bulky human fingers that had to reach in different directions to hit various keys or controls, these hands were designed to clamp down on things. The pincers held them in place while hundreds of tiny, dexterous appendages manipulated objects with precision, all without having to move the arm. Efficient… but super gross.

“Enough.” The parasitic alien screeched, “we fight. Winner take mine station. Reap reward.”

“Fine,” I said, and raised my claws in front of my crescent face.

The thing came at me with tremendous speed, and I did my best to defend myself against its onslaught. It latched on to me and managed to grind a chunk of my shoulder away, my skin crunching away between its beak. I sprawled and was only just able to disengage, grabbing it by the wrist and twisting, tearing its grip off of me. I heaved it away, but it slid out of my throw, righting itself and recovering quickly It crouched as it readied to attack once more.

“Damn,” I tried to mutter, but it came out as a low squawk, wincing as I placed one of my Dulox claws on a gaping wound that oozed thick, yellow blood. The pain was sharper than I expected, more intense than I thought it should’ve been. “You’re good at controlling these things. Been at this a while, huh? Eating brains like some kind of twisted horror show.”

“Dulox bad. Kill children. You kill children. Much violence. Kleeth fight back. Become strong.” The parasite screeched, warping the Dulox’s voice with each word.

The parasite didn’t waste time, it commanded its Dulox host to charge at me again. I braced myself, trying to remember everything from close quarters combat training. Standard, nothing fancy. I wasn’t used to fighting for my life like this, though. Claws up, I blocked where I could, but the parasite’s speed and precision overwhelmed me. Every blow felt like being pecked to death, beak strikes coming between punches, leaving me battered and bruised.

After the latest onslaught, the parasite pulled back, letting its host catch a breath. My own Dulox body was in bad shape, leaking from multiple wounds, my arms shredded from fending off its relentless attacks. That fifty percent damage increase? Yeah, it was doing its job. Each hit drained my energy, my body barely holding on. I had no idea if dying in this Dulox body would kill me too, and I really didn’t want to find out. I’m sure crab heaven is great and all, but it’d be like a frost giant showing up at Valhalla… and let’s just say, I’ve eaten a lot of crab in my life.

“What…” I panted, trying to suck in air, “are you even getting out of this? Why infest a Dulox mining station of all places?”

“Dulox kill all Kleeth. Exterminate nearby world. Kleeth home. I take surviving children. Hide on ship. Infest station. Build own ship. Leave here.”

I glanced around the dilapidated mining station. “You think you’re building a ship in this wreck? There’s nothing here.”

“We wait for more. Or… take yours.”

With that, it lunged at me again, faster than before. I couldn’t take much more punishment, I was running out of time, and options. Desperate times called for desperate measures: I let it latch onto me, the Dulox’s pincers sinking deep into my shoulders. I couldn’t break free even if I tried, its beak poised to strike again.

But this time, I was ready.

Just as it went in for another vicious bite, I shoved my claw into its mouth, clamping down on its beak. The parasite let out a sharp cry, releasing its hold on me to tear at my arm. I acted first, opening my beak and gnashing through the muscle near my shoulder. It hurt like hell, but at this point, pain was just background noise. The arm stiffened and locked in place, claw and all.

Gripping my dismembered arm, I used it like a lever, pulling the parasite closer. It resisted, but I shifted my weight, using its momentum to spin it off balance. As it swiveled, bringing most of its weight to bear on one leg, I swept my own underneath, sending it crashing to the ground.

Before it could recover, I pounced, pinning it down. With my remaining claw, I reached up between the peaks of its Dulox skull, grabbed hold of its proboscis, and ripped the parasite free from the poor creature’s face.

I barely managed to clamber off the alien, my strength nearly gone, and made a feeble attempt to stagger back toward my own body, still standing slumped, the thin cable arcing through the air and towards me. I only made it two steps before everything faded out.

When I came to, I was already stumbling forward, instinctively bracing myself to fall. I blinked, disoriented, too much blood loss, too much pain, but no, I was back in my body. Still sore, bruised, and aching, but nothing like I had been moments before, teetering on the brink of death. I scanned the scene in front of me, my stomach turning at the sight: if I thought the yellow-splattered hallways had been bad before, this was on another level. It looked like someone had dropped an industrial-sized barrel of mustard in the middle of the room, and then shot the busted thing with a shotgun a few times for good measure. Christ.

My eyes drifted over to the Dulox I had been inhabiting moments ago. The poor guy stood there, wobbling on his feet. I wasn’t sure if the Kleeth’s probing had left permanent brain damage or if Dulox could just shake off something like that, like it was nothing more than a bad headache. “Hey, buddy,” I said softly, “you did good. Everything’s gonna be o—”

Before I could finish, the Dulox collapsed to the floor, twitching for a second before going completely stiff. Gripped tightly in the alien’s claw, the Kleeth scrabbled weakly, unable to pull itself free from its dead prison.

“Creepy little bastard,” I grunted, stomping across the deck toward it.

The station’s main computer glowed merrily in front of me, its endless scroll of danger warnings finally coming to a halt. The symbols that had been unreadable earlier now made a disturbing amount of sense. Apparently, there was an alien infestation aboard; who knew? Ownership transferred quickly, notifications plinking away in my mind’s eye. I didn’t bother scrolling through them just yet. I was too exhausted, mentally and physically drained. I was sure some cool stuff was waiting for me: a level-up, maybe some new abilities, more language skills. Walking a mile in a weird crabby monster’s shoes did wonders for learning things from their perspective. Even though they didn’t wear shoes. Bare claw, all over the place. Which was unsanitary, really.

I patted my Dulox/Kleeth friend on the shoulder and pointed at the screen. “Look at that. Guess this universe does have pink slips after all.”

I’d put the Kleeth back on its Dulox host, but not before restraining the both of them to a small chair I’d found in the control room. I’d even tied the cutest little restraint around one of the Kleeth’s legs, snaking it down into the mess of ropes binding the Dulox. No way was I letting that thing roam free. Could you imagine? Tying up the host, delivering some triumphant monologue, only to turn around and see that you had completely spaced tying up the creature sitting on its head? Not that I’m saying it happened or anything, and I had to scramble after the little shit. Just... you know, hypothetically.

“Congratulation,” the Kleeth screeched, its tone completely flat.

"Oh, don’t be like that," I said, waving a hand. "I’m not here to wantonly kill and destroy. I mean, that is what happened, but the station was tagged as 'infested,' and your people are running around, you know... eating people!"

Both the Dulox and the parasite perched on its head turned their eyes in my direction, equally unimpressed.

"Don’t do that, it’s creepy," I muttered.

Thankfully, the parasite let the Dulox’s eyes relax and look forward again.

"Look," I said, sitting down near my captive, "I don’t want to hurt you. I didn’t mean to hurt the kiddos either. I’m just trying to survive in this fucked up universe like everyone else. The Dulox are a bunch of, and excuse my French..." I paused, trying to screech the filthiest Dulox insult I knew. My human vocal cords utterly failed to produce anything remotely close to the sound. "Anyway, you get the point."

I sighed and glanced at the ropes. "I’d let you go, man. I’d untie you right now. But we haven’t built that kind of trust yet. I mean, come on, look at us: You suck brains, I have a brain. That’s a hard relationship to build, you know?"

The Kleeth just stared at me, unblinking.

"Alright, how does this sound," I began. "I’ll let you stay here in my station. Keep your feet off the couch, don’t eat any food in the fridge with my name on it, and you can stay, rent-free." The Kleeth wiggled its little face in confusion but seemed to grasp the general idea. I continued, "I don’t care what you do, just don’t do whatever got the place tagged as 'infested' in the first place. And, most importantly, don’t try to eat my brains if I come back. Deal?"

"You really let Kleeth stay?" it asked, cautiously.

"Yeah! I’m not planning on sticking around. I want to scrounge up some materials, upgrade my ship, and then I’m out of here. I’ve got a dimension to vacate."

"You no hurt Kleeth?"

"No way. As long as you don’t hurt Crash," I said, raising a finger toward the little softball-sized parasite that sat upon the drooling half-corpse of an alien. It hesitated, then released one of its pint-sized pincers from the Dulox and, after a moment’s consideration, tapped my gloved finger with its tiny foot.

You have made an alliance with: Surviving Kleeth Enclave.

"Sick." I grinned, closing my fist and shaking it in triumph. Turning back to the console, I leaned back, exhausted but with the smallest hint of satisfaction. "Now, let’s figure out how to squeeze something useful out of this ugly-as-sin mining station. Daddy needs a new airlock door."