Omnipotence and Research had done something yet again.
They had opened a portal to another planet.
A terrifying, snow-ridden, chilly, cold as hell planet.
There were a lot of vertical drops, a lot of mountains, and by god, so. Many. Snow. Storms.
O&R lost at least 15 of their mercenaries to unexpected drops, and at least 20 to the... creatures.
Snow Terrors. That's what one of the mercs called the things.
6 feet tall. Creatures that just came swooping out of nowhere and would carry you away to... somewhere.
But all of it was worth it when they captured a live specimen and brought it back.
So now, Doctor Abram Lenov was standing in front of a Snow Terror. The thing was strapped down to a table, and was clearly still awake. It's desperate thrashing made it hard to believe it was dead or asleep.
He couldn't help but admire it.
It looked like a perfect hunter for where it lived.
8 limbs were situated over it's body; four legs, two wings, and two underbelly arms. The legs had skin flaps, presumably used as wings to assist in flight- for it had no tail, the absence of which would've been detrimental to it's flight if it hadn't evolved the skin wings.
The head featured two large, elongated-oval shaped nostrils, which sat on top of textured, pad-like things that had many, many fine hairs.
What was strange was that it had no eyes, but it's head followed Abram wherever he went. He presumed it either could somehow see in thermal, or it could hear him moving about.
The nostrils didn't seem to be able to close; however, it did have many fine hairs inside of it as well, which seemed to be for catching dust or other unwanted materials.
The teeth inside of the mouth were... astonishing, to say the least. Unlike the white and arctic blue of the skin, the teeth were a dark gray, and very strong. Quite sharp as well; Abram had ran his finger lightly over one and it cut the glove.
What was interesting was that it had three extra fingers on the back of each limb; a long appendage situated above the foot, presumably to fold in and out the skin flaps, and two curved claws on the heel of the foot, which could move to either touch the bottom of the foot or press against the back of the limb. Evidently, this offered a lot of grip strength.
Abram thought for a second and envision the Snow Terror flying; it would look a little awkward, sure, but it could probably execute sharp turns and complex maneuvers that it would've barely been able to do even with a tail.
From what he could tell, this creature was built for speed and strength. The legs were muscled and multi-jointed.
More likely than not, the Snow Terror was an apex predator.
Abram shivered at the thought of the things coming to Earth- thankfully, they had closed the portal.
Well, his observational duties had now ended.
Next up was testing the strength of the creature's scales.
He felt no remorse as he took a drill off the wall; this was for science, and this creature was a clear danger to humanity. These experiments would allow O&R to prepare for if the unexpected were to happen- in fact, these experiments would allow for O&R to prepare for anything.
Vrrrrrrr.
The bit on the drill spun fast, and then he pressed it against the shoulder of the creature- the most heavily armored part of it.
No sound came from the Snow Terror; sparks flew, and the first reaction came from it- it's head snapped to stare at the sparks as they descended to the floor, following them intently with nonexistent eyes.
That's when Abram noticed something slightly bulging against the skin of the cheek of the thing; it looked to be in a sphere shape, and the scales were translucent enough there for him to notice that it pulsed.
He stopped drilling- he had barely made a scratch in the armor anyways.
Time to experiment.
He took a flare off the wall; he struck it against the floor, activating it, and the Snow Terror's head once again snapped to stare at the red light.
He could see that the sphere pressed more against the scales and when he moved the flare to the right, the head followed it.
Now he realized why the skin was translucent there.
It was a heat sensing organ, that sphere.
"Incredible..." Abram murmured as he crept closer, simply in awe.
Not many other creatures had such an organ; but snakes were one example.
This was a discovery in a discovery, important as well if they were to be forced to combat these creatures.
Imagine if he published this! The first alien creature to be found, by O&R no less!
The scientific community would be scrambling to comprehend such a creature. And O&R would have the only specimen!
Wait. The genetical experiments he could run... the entities he could create...
This opened up so many options. So many paths. So many possibilities.
=--=--=--=
TWO DAYS LATER, O&R PUBLIC SCIENCE EVENT.
What a coincidence. The biggest discovery in science, found just before the O&R public science event.
Nobody would be able to top this.
One might wonder why Abram is treating the PSE like a contest. The reason why was that the PSE was a contest.
Every year, scientists and doctors and geneticists would come from across the globe to present their projects. Every year, the winner would either be granted a position inside of O&R, or if they were already in O&R, they would be given a raise.
Abram had started participating in the event once he heard the word "raise".
For 3 years in a row, he had been the first place winner. But there was always a close second- Richard Bauer. He was also chasing the raise reward; in addition, he was Abram's assistant or partner. It was a friendly rivalry to see who could one-up the other.
[TEMPORARY END]